GOOD NEWS

Good news, the journey man did respond but it went into my junk mail so i didn't know!! he said yes to using the story but said there is also someone who has already done it before. It is on this website:
http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/stories/legend-of-the-bat-1-the-video
I understand that she used aztec kind of style drawings as its a mexican story but i actually think the characters could have been designed better so i think i would still like to try. I also think the animation could be more fluid so i could attempt that. I would also like to see more use of backgrounds.

Plan B

Unfortunately the man i asked to use his story about the bat didn't respond so i have had to resort to plan B. This is to find a folk tale such as "how the leopard got his spots" and then animate that for children.
Now the first already animated version i see is this. It is very old fashioned, long winded and a little racist with poor almost animation.

This is more the tone of voice and pace i am looking at

As discussed in my tutorial, doing a story from a difference place in the world would make me have to do a lot of research which would inform my designs more. Like Tinga tales which is very african based.

I really like this i love how the culture is all in there and i would like to do that too. However i don't think i would like mine to be quite as long as that. There are lots and lots of tinga tinga tales and i don't want to copy them but i do really like how they are done. 

These all come from the Just so stories by Rudyard Kipling.

I found this website that has all of the stories on 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2781/2781-h/2781-h.htm#link2H_4_0002

Tutorial #3

Mike suggested i read Good girls and wicked witches and Handsome heroes and vile villains (update: again these weren't particularly helpful)

Think about writing a whole chapter on archetypes, think about anthropomorphism, look at blogs in your face princess.

plan b for practical could be looking at myths and folktales from different cultures. What media will i be doing this in?

Tutorial #2

In this tutorial we spoke of cultural understanding and how it could be important to my designs. 
I need to research into character archetypes and break my work down into the chapters i want to write. Mike said everything seems okay so far.
In the practical element he said i need to identify what world my characters live in. Also think of a plan B incase i can't get hold of the man who told the story.
Start researching bats and audience.
Read 99 ways to tell a story by matt madden  and skilful huntsman. (update: this book was okay but not very helpful at all)
Look at other folk tales and how they are told.

COP3 planning

I have decided that my essay will be about how the use of colour theory and other theories such as the use of shapes and different techniques are important to character design especially in designing archetypes. 
This will hopefully include a chapter on a case study where i can show professional uses of these things, and a chapter on my practical which will include a lot of character development using lots of different theories trying to make my character the best it can be and show that it is better after all these processes. Then i intend to design one or two characters for my extended practice module that will go from the research and story stage through all the development and end up with a style sheet and turnarounds and a hopefully an animation test.
So far I have written up my notes (which has come to 6559 words) plus 500 words that could be used in the essay.
I have created a plan of when I need to have things done by and i will try and stick to it as best i can.

COP 3 tutorial 1

From this tutorial we found out that:
I need to find a question but it could be something along the lines of representation of characters, archetypes etc.
Some things to research are:
-Archetypes
-Gender
-Representation
-Anthropomorphism
-Appealing
-Environment
-Monomyth-heros journey
-Tropes+character design

Mike said that actually creating a world for your character to live in as actually almost as important as the character itself as it defines boundaries for the character like a world with high gravity would have characters that have adapted to live there. He wants me to create some characters within a world for the next tutorial which is:Wednesay 28th october

COP3

-Chapter about practice can be first person

-Write up tutorials on blog

-Academic poster, bits of practice research and essay

-Bring new proposal form on 14th october

-Write 500 words on something you've learnt about

-28th october- have a solid idea of what your doing

-Write 1 chapter in rough by the end of the month

-Send 3 days before tutorial for feedback

-Presentation on practical 12th november

-Half done by mid november

-9th december- full draft uploaded to turnit in

-10th december- progress crit

-11th december poster exhibition+practical work

-6th January- tutorial feedback on whole thing

-7th Jan- present to peers and tidy it up

-14th Jan 1pm- Hand in

COP3

-Help with research dissertation books in the library
-How learning about tricks for character design helps give life? - possible essay topic?
-Planning the project
-Write down all questions you want to investigate
-Consider each in their own merit and focus on two (primary and secondary)
-A4 first thought sheet
-what is the purpose of the study? is your question researchable?
-working title
-Ideally provide a thesis question that is concluded at the end
-Make note of key things you want to raise as you go along
-No more than 15-20 words (title)
-Choose appropriate tone
-Consider timings- make a project plan
-Deadline is in 15 weeks
-Consider holidays and life
-Allow time for collation/presenting/binding
-Turn it in draft before 11th December
-Find out which people are most talked about in the subject
-Triangulation
-Use Jstor
-Google scholar
-Start bibliography now
-Name, date, title in italics,place, publishing
-Seperate into chapters
-Formal intro
-conclusion-answer title
-Different angles in chapters
-Module overview- shows tutorials and other useful stuff
-Qualitative+ Quantitative 
-Questions on research methods on power point

Practice characters

I have just read Creating characters with personality by Tom Bancroft. It was a brilliant book because it gave you tasks to do which help you to learn through doing. It was such a good idea. Here are the characters i designed using this book. I decided to do the cowboy and the cowgirl. They are not perfect and I would love to go and revise them both at some point in the future. They are definitely better than when I started this project though.

Drawings from research

While reading How to draw the marvel way by John Buscema and Stan Lee I learned soooooo much! This was one of the best books I read for helping me learn to draw better.
My faces became more realistic as I learned the proper proportions and the triangle technique which is how you place features on the face. I thought that was so clever and it really did make my drawings better!
This is really good reference for figuring out face angles which is something that I struggle with so I saved it as a note and also practiced to see if i could even copy images like this and still have them look right.
 I also learnt about action poses and how to use shapes to build them up. I am still learning about this but I think I am better than I was.

I used all the techniques I had just learnt in this book to create a picture of Catwoman. I used the shapes to build up her body and then the triangles to do the face. I was so impressed with myself! These tips really do help!!

Learning character design

Wile i have been reading The ultimate character design book by Chris Hart, I have also been drawing as it helps me to learn what he is talking about in the book. Here are a few things I drew. I tried to put down on paper what I had learnt about the difference in ages mostly. But also the technique of going from paper to digital.


Firstly theres the grandma. Her eyes are small, her torso is rounded, her hair is short and permed. This was inspired by both my own and my boyfriends grandmas and I combined the two.
 

This is a toddler so she has big eyes, big head in relation to the body and short limbs with long hair. This was inspired by my 3 year old niece.

This character is a stroppy teenage girl. The eyes here are still large but getting better proportioned, her head is still a little large for her body, her hair makes a statement and is long. This was inspired by people I see around leeds and what i remember from people at school.






I also made visual notes to refer back to at some things I struggle on.

Academic conventions

Intro

Demonstrate critical knowledge of practice 
apply theory to practice
analysis  relevant material
evaluate theory evidence within confers of study
Reflect critiquing and critically reflecting on your learning and using this to improve practice

Indépendant engagement with material
Critical and thoughtful about idea information
Relates evidence ideas to own previous experience and knowledge
Sees the big picture
Relates evidence to conclusions
Examines logic of arguments 
Interested in wider reading and thinking
Ongoing preparation reflection

Academic writing is form and follows standard conventions
Use  vocabulary unique to descepline.
Based of solid evidence and logical analysis and presented as concise accurate argument
Academic writing can allow you to present your argument and analysis
accurate and concise

Art terminology in the library

Intro should map out logic of dissertation paragraph on each chapter and how it leads on 
500 words
Write concisely not waffly
Try not to be uncertain 'might' just say it and back it up with evidence 
Avoid repeating same words
do not open with waffle
Avoid abbreviations slag words, controversial terms and vague terms
Don't use first person

Preliminaries - title/akknowlegements, contents, list of illustrations

COP3

Dissertation or extended written piece

chris.graham@leeds-art.ac.uk

harvard referencing guide on e studio

sconul access- to access other universities

research 

-define early on what it is your writing about

-begin research with diagram

-get primary and secondary research

-visual practice experiments interest and enquiry

-questionares (qualitative/quantitive) -do pilot first

-interviews

-case study

-site vitis

-literature search:

-books 

-journals

-websites

-videos/dvds

-cds

-tv/radio

-newspapers/maps/reports

-printed ephemera-something that doesn't last -flyers, beer mats, posters, 

-Knowing where to look most effectively

-effective use of catalogues

-narrowing and broadening search terms

-using related terms

-browsing using dewey decimal classification

-use of contents page and index

-reading the introduction or abstract-tells you what is happening in each book rather than wasting time reading whole thing

-using a books own bibliography to inform further reading

-the British library in Boston spa www.bl.uk

-infoTrac- www.infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/leedscad

-store of online magazine articles

-if at home use password  on studio

-jstor only available in uni

-use speech marks to search better "special effects" film

-art full text

-college portal-library

-Athens

-need to ask library for passwords

-www.athens.ac.uk

-Google scholar

-www.scholar.google.co.uk

-dont bite off more than you can chew keep topic focused and manageable)

-create a sense of momentum (note taking, writing a draft section when you can keeping you bibliography up to date)

Essay

To what extent does music/a soundtrack enhance the experience of viewing animations?

This essay will discuss the relationship between sound and animation/film including music, sound effects and musicals, and how the use of sound helps to drive the narrative. Examples will comprise of silent movies such as Charlie Chaplin’s Lions cage (1928), animations such as The Corpse Bride (Tim Burton, 2005), Steamboat Willie (Walt Disney, 1928), and Nausicaä of the valley of the wind (Hayao Miyazaki,1984), and live action films such as Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) and The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)


‘Film music whether it’s a pop song, improvised accompaniment, or an originally composed cue, can do a variety of things. It can establish setting, specify a particular time and place; it can fashion a mood and create atmosphere; it can call attention to elements onscreen or off screen, thus clarifying matters of plot and narrative progression; it can reinforce or foreshadow narrative developments and contribute to the way we respond to them; it can elucidate characters’ motivations and help us to know what they are thinking; it can contribute to the creation of emotions, sometimes only dimly realized in the images both for characters to emote and for audiences to feel.’ (Kalinak, 2010, page 1)

Music has always been a major part in films right from the first ever silent movie in 1891. Live music was played by a full orchestra to accompany the silent movie to engage the audience and help show what is happening in the story. For example in Charlie Chaplin’s The Lion’s Cage, (see link 1) the music matches his footsteps to show that he is creeping, not wanting to wake the lion. The high-pitched long note as Charlie finds himself face to face with a tiger helps portray his shock and fear, as we cannot hear him gasp or scream! The music becomes more frantic as he cannot find a way out and the lion is waking up.

In comparison to this good use of sound, we look at another silent movie Un Chien Andalou (1929) (see link 2) In this film, with input from Salvador Dali, there are many different shots, said to have lots of meaning or no meaning at all depending on the way you look at it. The use of sound here is very different; it does not particularly seem to be a description of the action but more a motif of emotion. There are two melodies played alternately, both sounding quite romantic in style. The melody with staccato notes and a tango rhythm (Ole Guapa) seems to be used where the man is going after the woman we think to kill her as there is a visual in the movie with ants coming form the mans palm which comes from a French phrase “ants in the palms” which is said to mean that someone is itching to kill. (IMDB) So this melody describes passion, fear, wanting, and action. The other is a more slow paced French style melody (Leibstod and Vorspiel by Richard Wagner) used to describe everything else, the less dramatic scenes. Many would say that this is over used in this film and another piece of music should have been used in scenes like when the man falls off his bike as the music seems too relaxed for this event. However when this was first made there were two physical records and one record player so they had to be switched over. Having another record might have made things even more complicated.

In 1928, Walt Disney animation studio created Steamboat Willie being the first animated film to have a soundtrack composed specifically to synchronise with it. (Disney Wiki) It was played by a couple of people in another room, piping the sound into the room with the screen. Apparently the synchronisation was actually pretty accurate!

In 1937 we were introduced to the first full-length animated musical that came in the form of Snow white and the seven dwarves. Although this was a big step for its time, being the first feature length animation, ‘it was only in 1989 with The Little Mermaid, and 1991 with the astonishingly successful Beauty and the Beast- the only animated film to ever be nominated for an academy award in the best picture category-that the animated musical became a truly mainstream genre again.’ (Coyle, 2010, Page 25)

An example of this is The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). This movie deals with a lot of issues for example, being cast out, bullying, physical differences, cultural differences and more. In The bells of Notre Dame, which is the first song we hear, there are some quite cruel things said and the visuals come across as quite scary. “Just so he's kept locked away, Where no one else can see, Even this foul creature may, Yet prove one day to be, Of use to me”

Arguably, having this description of how the Hunchback came to be up in the bell tower as a song rather than just acted makes the story easier to digest and less shocking to a younger audience. This is sometimes the aim of a musical. Much like animation can be used to portray things that are hard to watch in film but as animation they seem to be far more digestible. This may be because on both accounts, the narrative we are seeing does not seem quite as real.



Since then, many other companies other than Disney have made animated musicals. For example Tim Burton has made a few. One of which was The Corpse Bride (2005). There is a particular ticking motif in The Corpse Bride. Everything moves in the same rhythm using a harpsichord- a mechanical sounding instrument to show the pace, 'which adds to the sense of things here being mechanized and ordered rather than lively and spontaneous.' 'The dead, freed from this constraint, are far more vigorous as a result.’ This motif is used to differentiate between the living and the dead. When you hear this ticking motif, even if you cannot see a character, you know that someone alive is or will be in this scene. This helps the audience engage with the movie. (Coyle, 2010, Page 33)

However it is not just the songs that help drive the narrative in these films. Sound effects are also very necessary as you are creating an alternate reality that does not have its own background noise so it is necessary to provide these to make it seem more real. ‘The use of sound effects in film helps give weight to a large boulder that may only be made from papier-mâché or even millions of tiny pixels animated through CGI. It can give a sense of impending doom via a ticking clock that tells the audience that time is running out. Sound effects build character to a spaceship the size of Delaware that is, in fact, the size of a skateboard. On a psychological level, a sound effect can invoke fear, such as a chilling whisper or breathing sound coming from the next room of the camp counsellor’s cabin nestled in the woods of camp crystal lake.’ (Viers, 2008, Page 3)

An example of this is A Fox Tale by 4ADesertanimtion (see link 3), the use of sound effects really helps us feel like we know where this film is set and that we are there too as we can hear the birds singing and the crickets and the wind blowing. We hear every movement that is made from steps on the ground, to brushing past leaves, to water dripping from a body. All of these things help us to believe this animation. We relate to it because we are hearing everything we would expect to hear if it was real life. Nicolas Titeux did a fabulous job in creating realistic sound effects that not only work well with the animation, but actually improve it and make it an art form in its self. Without these sounds, the film would be empty, unrealistic and nowhere near as engaging no matter how beautiful the animation is.

A very good quote that shows the importance of sound effects and music in animation is-‘If animation is the process of breathing life into a character, then music infuses emotion into that life’ (Beuchamp, 2005, Page 43) As we all know, emotions make things believable, much like facial expressions. The sound effects used are also to make things believable. If you were watching a live action film where a man was sweeping the floor, you would hear the bristles scraping across the floor and the footsteps of the man and possibly his breathing if he is working hard. In animation, this does not automatically happen because it is not real, but we still expect it, therefore we need to add this in. This makes the scene more believable.

‘The early animations of Warner Brothers and MGM studios utilised sight gags to great effect. During this period, musical instruments were often substituted for traditional SFX in a design approach that is sometimes referred to as effects scoring. Chords of varied volume and dissonance were often used to exaggerate actions while also deemphasising any implied violence. Melodic themes followed the up or down motion of on-screen objects or actions (isomorphism)’. (Beuchamp, 2005, Page 45) Isomorphism is widely used across more exaggerated comical sound effects like in animations such as Loonytoons’ Wile E Coyote and the Roadrunner. Very often in this cartoon Wile E falls off a very high cliff. The sound effect that always goes with this is a high pitched squeal that gets lower in pitch the further he falls. (see link 5) This shows that he is falling a very long way especially if the sound goes on for a long time. This enables us to show Wile E at different angles, even ones where we cannot see the floor, and still know he is falling from a great height.

As well as Isomorphism, we have directed sound, which can equally give us sense of space and help us know where things are in a scene. For example if you can hear an explosion closest to your left ear, that means it is happening to the left of what we can see on screen. This works best in a cinema when you have surround sound but can work just as well through headphones. This can work so well in fact that sometimes we do not even need visuals to understand what is happening for example very simply, if you are listening through headphones to footsteps that go from your left ear through to your right ear, you get the impression that someone has just walked right by you.

‘Sound effects often represent a characters outer world, whereas underscore often signifies that character’s inner world. Underscore invites the audience to perceive and respond to the emotions suggested by the narrative’ (Beuchamp, 2005, Page 45)

Some sound effects, often entwined in the music, can create intense emotions such as shock. The shrieking violin sound effect that evokes terror in its original use in the shower scene in Psycho worked so well that it is now an ‘iconic musical creation of terror’ (Kalinak, 2010, Page 15) and this sound has now become ‘a convention for terror itself, evoked in countless horror films, parodies of horror film…’ (Kalinak, 2010, Page 15) They found this representation of terror to be such a success that it is now commonly used and recognised. Such can be said for many sound effects, such as the sound for magic being an octave of glockenspiel or chimes being struck in an ascending order. Many of these types of sounds have been recognised and reproduced countless times and that is how we now have collections of sound effects such as the Hana Barbara sound effects.

‘the emotions we experience in response to music involve structures deep in the primitive, reptilian regions of the cerebellar vermis, and the amygdala-the heart of emotional processing in the cortex.’ (Levitin, 2006, page 87)

Although these sound effects that evoke emotions are highly useful and effective, silence can be just as effective in creating things like suspense, tension, loneliness and fear. The absence of sound here creates an eerie feel and you feel like something is wrong and something is going to happen. For example in The Shining when Danny is roaming around the halls in his trike. (see link 4) The only things we hear are his wheels. Although this is not complete silence, it still feels unnaturally quiet. This shows us that the house is almost empty, Danny is alone, and there is nothing to do and that something does not feel right about this place.

Soundtracks can be subtly composed to evoke specific emotions using clever musical techniques for example in Nausicaä of the valley of the wind (1984), A little girls song entitled Nausicaä Requiem, composed by Joe Hisaishi ‘used as a sub-thematic melody to suggest Nausicaä’s nostalgic recollection of her early childhood and her realisation that she could not return to this secure and happy time of her life’ (Koizumi cited in Coyle 2010, Page 64 ) this is achieved using a binary structure ‘(a-a’-b-a’) this is characteristic of nursery rhymes or some folk songs.’ Using techniques like this evoke specific feelings like nostalgia as it makes the audience subtly think of nursery rhymes without even realising it. This is a clever technique as no one consciously thinks about why the music has been composed the way it has but subconsciously their brain is remembering all the songs from your childhood, making you, at that moment, in the same mind-set as the young girl in the movie, connecting you to her and making you feel what she is feeling.

Music can also be used to create tension as described by Beauchamp (2005, page 22), when you sing a scale from the bottom up and stop at the 7th note, the note wants to ‘resolve upward. An unresolved scale is a powerful means of creating tension’ this is because the phrase seems unfinished like we are waiting for something. In the same passage we are informed that tension can also be achieved by using one instrument instead of another. ‘For example a distorted electric guitar seems to produce more tension than an alto flute. Melodic lines that are jagged rather than smooth produce more tension’.

Music in animation can also be used to describe culture. For example films like Brother Bear or Pocahontas both have Native American sounds using drums and mostly percussion instruments. And Mulan (1998) has very Chinese sounds with the use of a specific key. And Lion King (1994) has its very soulful accapella and lots of harmonies and drums like zulu choral music . It is very important that music of the specific cultures is fully explored and researched to give the best authenticity.

On the other hand, “a piece of music is not itself a narrative, for music is a non-representative art form.” (Rondolin cited in Larsen, 2007, Page 206) This asks the question: then how does it help to drive the narrative? Which in some cases, seems like the music’s purpose. Well it does however possess ‘certain formal characteristics that are reminiscent of the structures to be found in narrative texts” (Larsen, 2007, Page 206) Which is arguably how we get the illusion of narrative from music. Music can definitely add to the narrative and help explain things but also from a director/creators point of view, they have made this film and they want you to interpret it in a certain way. To do this they work with composers who will compose a score to create this mood “in certain situations, however, the music can actively shape the mood of the narrative or, more precisely, indicate to the spectator how a particular scene is to be understood and experienced”. (Larsen, 2007, Page 206) This helps the viewer know what is going on in the story and understand it the way it was written.

However, music’s function in a film is not just to contribute to the narrative. It can also function as an ‘additive’. In this case, the music is helping the construction of the film rather than adding to the narrative. Examples of this are when a piece of music is played as the main sound as we see multiple different shots played, which helps show the passing of time. This is therefore reinforcing the structure of the film.

‘the animation film-more than any other type of movie- is characterized by its construction of worlds in which the audience routinely encounters the unpredictable, the surreal, the illogical, the impossible, and around which the opportunities for imagination and invention are infinite. In such circumstance’s, a reliance on existing tracks seems undesirable since as wright has commented ‘pre recorded music is, in essence, a ‘prefabricated’ element…It enters the process already formed and the options for manipulating it are limited’ (2003:9) And yet as was demonstrated in Walt Disney’s Fantasia) (James Algar et al. 1940) the crafting of images to music, rather than music to images, can be successful and memorable. (Ian Inglis cited in Coyle 2010,Page 80)

There are many more examples of crafting images to music for example, Silly Symphonies. There are many versions of these. They allowed the animators to have fun with their animations, as there were no strict guidelines. The prefabrication of music here just gives the animators something to work with. As we have seen, these were very popular and they created more and more, using these shorts to test out new animation styles such as creating colour animations and the multiplane camera.

In conclusion, Film music and sound effects are both very useful as they help describe what is going on, the emotional side and the practical side. Sound effects are a very important factor in animation as it is not real and to believe in the animation we need it to seem real. Although film music is very important in both film and animation, we have seen that silence can be just as effective in creating different emotions and conveying feelings of emptiness and loneliness. Sound design actually has a lot more theory and process in it than at first glance.














Bibliography



Kalinak, K, (2010) Film music- A very short introduction, Oxford University press

Coyle, R, (2010) Drawn to sound: animation film music and sonicity, Equinox Publishing

Beauchamp, R, (2005) Designing sound for animation, Focal Press

Sonnenschein, D, (2001) Sound design- the expressive power of music, voice, ands sound effects in cinema, Michael Wiese Productions

Donnelly, K.J, (2005) The spectre of sound: music in film and television, British Film Institute

Levitin, D, (2006) This is your brain on music: Understanding a himan obsession, Atlantic Books

Larsen, P, (2010) Film music, Reaktion Books

Viers, R, (2008) The sound effects bible: How to create and record Hollywood style sound effects, Mivhael Wiese Productions







Sound in animation, Morgan Ames (2004) http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs294-7/sp04/sp_04_presentations/Sound_In_Animation.pdf

[Accessed]: 8/02/15



Open research online (2015) The non-diegetic fallacy: film, music, and narrative space

http://oro.open.ac.uk/29647/2/15A73DFF.pdf

[Accessed]: 16/02/2015



The encyclopaedia of Disney Animated shorts, (2015) Silly symphonies

http://www.disneyshorts.org/miscellaneous/silly.aspx

[Accessed]: 24/02/2015





Mind bites, Brittanie (2008) Importance of sound effects

http://blog.mindbites.com/importance-of-sound-effects/

[Accessed]: 24/02/2015



Kees van den Doel, Paul G. Kry, and Dinesh K. Pai (2015)

FOLEYAUTOMATIC: Physically-based Sound Effects for Interactive Simulation and Animation

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~pai/papers/foleyautomatic.pdf

[Accessed]: 24/02/2015



Tom Troscianko, (2015) The influence of sound effects on the perceived smoothness of rendered animation

http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/Publications/Papers/2000391.pdf

[Accessed]: 24/02/2015



Roles, Significance, importance of sound/audio in animation,Meryll, (2012) Sounds/Audion: An important tool in animation

http://soundsupervision1.blogspot.co.uk

[Accessed]: 24/02/2015



IMDB (2015) Un chein andalou plot summary, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020530/plotsummary

[Accessed]: 17/03/2015



The Disney Wiki (2014) History: Steamboat Willie, http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Steamboat_Willie

[Accessed:17/03/2015]









Links




Link 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79i84xYelZI

Link 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIKYF07Y4kA

Link 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piH5_aP0fY8

Link 4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy7ztJ3NUMI

Link 5:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8ROhH3_vs

Text analysis

In this text analysis i will be talking about the book 'Drawn to sound'  by Rebecca Coyle. I found this book really useful for my essay about sound and its relationship to animation. It contained lots of different examples from lots of different genres giving me a very diverse range of research including animation, film, things from a long time ago, and more current things. It provided me with a fair few quotes for my essay and also gave me a good insight into lots of different uses of sound and different examples. I really enjoyed reading it and actually read most of the book instead of just flicking through. I particularly liked the part about The Corpse Bride by Tim Burton where she explained about how motifs are used in music to convey specific meanings. In this case it was a ticking motif 'which adds to the sense of things here being mechanised and ordered rather than lively and spontaneous.' 'The dead, freed from this constraint, are far more vigorous as a result'. I really enjoyed this part. 

A good thing about this book is that although it has some technical aspects, it is not heavily technically based so you do not have to have a deep understanding of musical composition to understand what Rebecca is trying to say. It is more theoretical based and explains how and why things are done. Unlike  Sound design by David Sonnenschein which has a lot of technical based reading. Although i have studied music a little bit in the past, it still doesn't make as much sense as an explanation on the theory behind why the composers did what they did. This is also more helpful for my essay because that too is more about why things work the way they do and what they show. 

I also liked this book because it didn't just talk about film music like most of the books i found, it talked about animations and sound effects as well which was actually quite hard to find and what i was specifically looking for. It meant i could still write about what i had intended to for my essay and get enough quotes for it. The way it was written was easy enough to keep up with and understand for me as it wasn't  written overly academically. 

In conclusion i believe this book helped my essay immensely and I don't think i could've written my essay without it. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about how sound and animation work together. I really enjoyed this book so much so that i read almost every page even if the page contained nothing that would work for my essay.

COP2 animation

I have now finished my animation. I decided to just use sounds from the internet on freesfx for speed and ease to help me progress faster with this because there is a lot to do this month. I think it works fine and gives the effect i wanted pretty much. I just wish i was better at stop motion but i have decided after this that it isn't particularly something i am interested in pursuing.

COP 2 animation

Today i re did my stop motion animation. It turned out SO much better. its amazing what the right lighting and a bit of practice can do! heres how it turned out:

Next comes the hard part...trying to figure out how to do the sound! I think this animation is definitely going to help me improve my range of abilities as I am doing things I have never done before. After making my claymation I don't think I'm very hooked on it...I think i prefer digital animation like 2D and 3D!! It does create a cool effect, I just don't think its really my thing. I probably wouldn't do it again if I didn't have to. It would possibly be different with an armature and a more refined character like the ones in corpse bride as theres not so much that can be changed drastically and not look like the original and it has little keys that can change things minutely which I think is a great idea.

COP animation 1

I decided to go straight into animating today, so i made my little model and set up my space. Unfortunately i hadn't realised that the camera wasn't charged so while i waited for that to happen it was getting later and later and by the time i started animating it was sunset and the light was changing dramatically so unfortunately I will have to do it again. It is always good to have a practice run though, i learnt a lot like how i can keep my camera still, what kind of gaps i need in the movements, what angles i need, remember to check the focus...etc...So overall its probably a good thing because tomorrow I can make it better.

COP animation

For my COP animation, I have decided to create a stop motion animation because I haven't done one yet and it will give me chance to have a go at it, also I think for what I am doing, not only will it be quick but it will hopefully give a nice aesthetic. 

My idea, that we had to put on a proposal form, and that Mike has said is okay, is this:

I will be creating a short animation of around 10 seconds that will be played over twice with two different sound tracks that I will also be creating. They will hopefully be a mixture of music and sound effects. The two tracks will be quite contrasting showing that music and sound effects play a big part in how we perceive a storyline. Using clay stop motion I think will be good for this and simple shapes too because it means I don't have to worry about facial expressions so it won't affect the mood of the piece and I can leave that all to the music.

I looked at a few different shapes to use, I wanted them to be quite simple for speed and ease. 

The first was quite a squashy shape that moves like a caterpillar/ slug and scrunches up. I liked the idea that the top half was almost like a head, I thought it looked quite emotive.

The second was just a ball and it would roll to move and it would have lots of squash and stretch to show emotion but i didn't think it had as much narrative potential in it.

The third was a cube, i thought it would be cool to do an awkward roll because it is square, it would squash and stretch a little bit but not much. I thought this wouldn't work as well because theres not enough movement in it to show a good reaction.

For these reasons I went with number 1.

This character will be made out of modelling clay.

 Next I created a short storyboard showing roughly what is going to happen in this very short animation. Basically it will move across the screen and come to a box where it will react to a toy dinosaur appearing. Depending on the music, this will seem like a scary thing, or a surprise.

I think this will work okay but it is only short so I will look through it afterward and decide if it works or not, if not I will re write the storyboard and try again.
I think the music is going to be the most difficult part. But i have a fairly good knowledge of film music as i did it in GCSE and i have read about it a lot for my essay. I will use a mixture of things like garage band, sound effects from the internet or hana barbera and audacity possibly. I will use after effects i think to put this all together.

Ideas for COP essay

I quite like the idea of talking about globalisation and how our country is better for having things from all around the world. this also goes for animation like we have Pokemon which is anime like Japanese but Americanised so its all mixed and brought into our culture. But there are also down sides like our country is not our country anymore.

COP 2 lecture-what is research

process is more important than the outcome
research is what i do when i don't know what I'm doing

primary research-developed and collected for a  specific purpose to solve a specific problem. it hasn't existed before
secondary research -data that already produced but for a different reason
quantitative- generated numerical data or data that can be converted into numbers.
qualitative research- describes events people, not statistical nut about perceptions or views.

information is something that has been processed from data.
information should be sufficient, relevant, useful,

knowing that (there are 50 people in the room-you can't count it)-theoretical
knowing how (know how to do something)-practical
knowing where (knowing a place or a person exist)-contextual 
between theory and practice you form a synthesis. 
paradigm shift- when you believe one thing for a while then later on something happens and your belief changes
what is there to study? ontology
how can we know about it? epistemology

ontology- philosophical analysis of what is or can be known
theoretical analysis of facts properties and process that forms knowledge
the conceptualisation or categorisation of existing knowledge and what can be known.

epistemology- the philosophical analysis of the scope and nature of knowledge and how we can know something
the theory of knowledge and how it related to concepts such as truth believe and justification
distinguished between knowing and acquaintance knowing that and knowing how.

how do we study it? methodology
methodology
how will you find out what you are looking for
identifies who will be involved and how
specifies how you will turn source material into evidence
consider how you will generate
methodology approaches-what do i do
 literature review
case study
longitudinal survey
ethnography
experimental
action research
activity theory
techniques-how do i do it
interviews
observation
questionares
drawing
making
recording

once you have decided on this and come up with data you have to process it to turn it into information
evaluating, reflection, justification, claims,inferences, application, communication

what do it show?
what does it mean?

decide when you are going to stop researching and start doing

the purpose of your research should be formulated into research question


start with what you already know
identify what you want to know more about
plan how you are going to find out about it

COP2 lecture-what is research

Where good ideas come from  by Stephen Johnson
idea driven research

stimulated approach
conscious or sub conscious search for inspiration from an external repertoire:in the surrounding media, in discussing, libraries etc.

systematic approach
this is based on the systematic collection and modification of components, characteristics and means of expression such as by structuring, restructuring, replacing, adding, mirroring, reproducing.(a process)

intuitive approach
this is the development of thought process which is primarily based on internalised perceptions and knowledge, that is to say an internal repertoire. this type of thought orioles may occur spontaneously, without being evoked especially. this is actually a systematic...

research is the process of finding facts. facts lead to knowledge. research is done by using what is already known 

research is driven by questions

collecting information, variety of sources including books, journals and the internet. also by carrying out experiments and talking to people and the analysis of this information.

primary research
research that is developed and collected for a specific end use to generate or solve a specific problem
research that involves the collection of data that does not yet exist
new stuff that you find that doesn't exist yet

secondary research
published or record data that have already been collected for some purpose other than the current study
the analysis of research that has been collected at an earlier point in time for reasons unrelated to the current project.
using things that have already been found

quantitate research
deals with facts figures an measurements and produces data which can be readily analysed. measurable data is gathered from a wide range of sources
generated numerical data or can be converted into numbers
the gathering and analysis of measurable data
red arch that is objective and relies on statistical analysis such as surveys

qualitative research 
explored and tries to understand peoples believe experiences, attitude, behaviour, and interactions. to generated non numerical data. the best known methods of inquiry included in depth interviews focus groups documentary analysis and participant observations
non numerical data. through interviews, conversations,
capturing peoples thoughts and emotions and being involved and document it.
a way of studying people or systems by interacting with and observing the subjects regularly.
gives and idea about the perceptions or views.

information is the result of processing manipulating and organising data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the person receiving it.

information should be sufficient competent relevant and useful
need a breadth of sufficient information


methodologies

start anywhere. just get started.