May 19, 2013

Cut-Out Animation Pt. 1

This last week I’ve been creating the scenes and characters for this cut-out stop-motion animation I’m working on. While it’s fun working on a handmade project, I can’t wait to get back into CGI and digital animation, so I’m really pushing to finish this within the next 6 weeks.

The main material I’ve been using to create these cut-out scenes and characters, is this black matte foil called ‘black wrap’ which is used to block out set lights or make gobos with. You can get it from most lighting stores but it’s not that cheap, so i’ve really been trying to use every last scrap to keep costs down.

The reason I’m using this instead of paper is that it’s more durable, heavier and gives cleaner lines then paper. I originally wanted to get some sort of soft black metal like Lotte Reiniger does in this video, but I couldn’t get my hands on the black lead she used… and i’m not sure how safe it is to use anyway. In my opinion, your health is one of the few things as important as your art so I might stay away from the lead.

I tend cut out the scenes the characters are in first so I don’t mess up the scale too much (like having a giant person in a small car etc.). I sketch out the characters in my journal and figure out their seperate parts, and what layer of glass they will go on on the multiplane bench, so I know what layers overlap other layers in a joint. Then I draw the characters onto the black wrap which takes pencil pretty well, and then I cut out the seperate parts with an x-acto knife. I’ve been told that small sharp nails scissors might be better for this though.

I think I’m just going to use small dots of blue-tack to keep the joints together, however I haven’t tested this to see if it works as well as I hope so that might change.

I’m also not sure how I’m going to paint the cut-outs, or if I even will. This animation was originally meant to be a silhouette animation but I’m drifting more and more away from that into coloured cut-out with maybe a couple of silhouettes.

And here’s my 3 legged cat giving me animation support.

There’ll be more to come soon!

-Hamish S.

May 16, 2013

Ray Harryhausen R.I.P

Ray Harryhausen was a pioneer in stop-motion puppet animation and special FX.
Harryhausen began as a fan of science fiction and was inspired to work on stop-motion puppet animations after seeing King Kong in 1933. He met master stop-mo animator Willis O’Brien which he was later to work with, who critiqued and helped Harryhausen develop his animation skills. He was hired as an assistant animator on his first feature film ‘Mighty Joe Young’ in 1949.

Harryhausen managed to inject real drama into the performances of his stop-motion puppets, giving them realistic qualities but also making them the larger than life fantastic creatures they were. He became most well known for his spectacular monster animations in films such as 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).

It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)

‘Jason and the Argonauts’ (1963)

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)

Ray Harryhausen’s work brought fantastical stories to life and inspired legions of animators and filmmakers over the years. R.I.P Ray, you were awesome.

Here’s a link to a great series of photos of Ray Harryhausen working behind the scenes throughout his career, from the amazing monster blog Monster Brains.

-Hamish S.

May 5, 2013

the sickness!

Aw man! I’ve been pretty sick this week with a brutal flu/cough/phlegm monster type thing so I haven’t done much work. It reminds me that as an artist you really need to take care of your health otherwise you won’t get much done and you’ll just die pretty early(which also makes it hard to work). It’s all fine to abuse yourself until you actually get ill and then you regret it hard.

I’ve been pretty good with getting out and exercising lately but I haven’t been eating well as I’ve been too poor to buy any good food. I’ve been living mainly off one ok meal of rice/vegetable matter a day and then mainly bread and shitty carbs which isn’t too bad. It’s better then living only off packet ramen and mi goreng which I used to do. I should be getting paid in the next few days and then I’m going to go to town on some delicious stir-fry.

It’s been a while since I’ve been caught this short of funds(which used to happen all the time) so I’m getting better at managing myself. As an artist you need to regulate your money pretty well too which only comes with experience. I recommend not relying on your friend’s charity unless you’re literally starving as that kind of shit wears thin real fast.

I’ve actually found that the social isolation of having not much money is worse then most things about it. But hey, if they’re cool friends they’ll understand and you can hang with them next time or do something free with you.

Anyway I’m going to drink some green tea and get back to making set pieces for my upcoming cut-out animation.

-Hamish .S

April 26, 2013

Inspiration

I don’t know who this guy is but he brings up some pretty decent points.

April 22, 2013

Everything I Can See From Here

‘Everything I Can See From Here’ is a short animation from The Line, directed by Sam Taylor and Bjorn Aschim.

The story is quite simple which tends to be one of the limitations of a short film. Within that simple story, they manage to give the protagonists distinct unique characters which is rare for a short. I could also harp on for ages about the technical aspects of this film that make it stand out, like the amazing use of colour, lighting, movement and texture; but I’m going to concentrate on another aspect.

The mood that was created by all these elements really sold this work to me and engaged me. I’m going to stay away from terms such as mise en scène as the definition is vague at best, however it could also be used to describe the aspect I’m talking about. The mood that was created, made this world feel visceral and easy to suspend my disbelieve about the artifices of animation. Even though the world is clearly not real, It allows me to be engaged as if it were so, even more so.

How did they create this mood? Well… tbh I don’t really know the full answer to that. It’s definitely to do with the skillful combination of visual aesthetics, attention to detail within the world, and sound-scape design; but I can’t or break down any particular reason why it creates this response in me.

It’s my goal this year to really begin to nail down a personal style which I can use to create mood in the worlds of own works, so I’ll definitely be studying works like this and Angel’s Egg.

April 11, 2013

Using Narration in Animation

Narration is an interesting storytelling tool as it’s probably the closest aspect of moving image to literature. I’ve always been a bit averse to narration especially when it’s used heavily or too much. I’ve been known to yell at television sets and movie screens “show don’t tell motherfucker”.

Even though it’s not really my thing, there are certain instances when narration can be really effective. I’ve observed that when it’s used NOT in conjunction with diegetic dialogue it can work particularly well. But when it’s used in conjunction with characters speaking on screen it just comes off lazy.

One such instance of effective narration I can think of would be the intro at the beginning of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring which was quite remarkable and still sends shivers down my spine when I watch it.

Another example would be the Dishonored: Tales of Dunwall animations. Besides the annoying child’s voice narrating(would’ve been better with Cate Blanchett) it’s extremely well done and an example of an good story(or part of one) and great storytelling technique.

I recently came across this student animation, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Tom Beg. Adapted from parts of Oscar Wilde’s novel of the same name, the entire short is comprised of visuals that take cues from the constant narration without actually depicting what’s happening in the story. Although not something I would personally pursue, It’s a technique that might interest some of you out there with budding stories. It’s an interesting way of visual storytelling and could be developed further.

- Hamish .S

April 7, 2013

Writing a Comic for the First Time – Pt. 1

I’m a big fan of certain comic and manga artists, like Charles Burns and Junji Ito but I never thought I would end up making one.

I’ve decided to write a comic because It’s a great story telling medium, It has quicker output than animation which allows me to produce more stories + get better at telling stories over time; and it’s still a visual way to tell them.

Coming from an animation background I’ve never written a comic before so I thought I’d detail my home-made process to encourage anyone else out there who wants to create and make interesting and diverse comics/graphic novels/manga. This process works for me but everyone is different so don’t be surprised if your process ends up different.

1. Detailing Ideas and Basic Concepts

My memory is completely shithouse so when I’m thinking of ideas and concepts for stories I’ve got to write them down right away, otherwise they slip into the fog that is my swiss cheese brain.

So to begin with I just write down ideas and visual ideas that I think of, into my journal(to keep it all together). I also write down questions I need to ask myself like “what is the protagonists motivation in this point?” or “what am I trying to say with this comic” or “why is this character even a human?”. Asking myself these questions by writing them down helps me to answer them by forcing me to think, and if I can’t answer them they’re on the paper so i can come back and work them out later.

2. Sequence of Events

The sequence of events is the scaffold where the narrative starts to come together.
On a blank page I write paragraphs that describe what is happening and basic dialogue. I then separate the story beats and breaks with arrows. The SOE is kind of like a story mind-map.

So an example of would be..

‘Protagonist wakes up in sewer with no legs. Pushes character b off of her(startled) and talks to him. Character b explains his intentions and background(limited). Protagonist has flashback to falling into sewer.

Protagonist finds driftwood and shoves them into her leg holes, creating prosthetic shins. Crawls out sewer grate into bare concrete trench. City can be seen in distance.

etc.’

I find the sequence of events to be particularly useful in establishing early problems and holes within your story which is indispensable.

3. Script

The script is where you start fleshing out your dialogue and the concepts that the characters and their interactions will construct. I’ve found that using the same script format as screenplay scripts works best for me. So under your character names the text will be dialogue, then other lines will be descriptions of actions and what is going on in the scene. You can find a script format tutorials everywhere including here.

Writing and formatting your script in a word processor is a pain in the ass so I’ve found that using a screenwriting program like ‘Final Draft‘ to be much better. After a few hours of use the program becomes second nature and makes writing out a script easy and quick.

I tend to write several drafts of the script over several weeks. I’m new to writing for character so I find convincing and ‘natural’ dialogue particularly challenging. After I write my first draft and wait a few days, I’ll go back and view the work with fresh eyes. I often find much of what i had written previously to be… pretty shit, but that’s ok because you can use previous dialogue and work on it to make it better, more complex and more natural.

4. First Visual Draft

The first visual draft is comprised of a series of small boxes representing pages, and stick figures in the boxes representing characters with primitive surroundings. The idea is that you can quickly sketch out what you visual want each panel to look like and not worry about the quality of your drawings.

This is only meant to be seen by you so don’t be ashamed by the quality of your drawing. As long as you can understand what is depicted then your drawing is good enough. It’s about getting the vision out of your head and onto paper to be worked on later.

I recommend numbering your ‘pages’ as it can get a bit confusing after a while.

5. Second Visual Draft

If I was working by myself I would skip this step and go on to step 6. to save time, but my friend Oscar C is illustrating the final work so I’ve created a second visual draft to convey my ideas to him.

The second visual draft should be a representation of the final work. The comic zine I’m working on will be an A5 sized booklet so all pages in this draft are that size. I draw on both sides of each page so when I bind them it will look like the finished book, and you can flick through and see any weaknesses it might have.

The pages and drawing will take longer than the first draft because you the drawing need to make sense to someone else. In this stage you will also likely change pages and panels because you will realize other things work better. This is good, don’t be afraid to change from your first draft.

When all the pages are complete you can bind them with a bull clip to keep it all together. You now have the entire comic in draft form!

——————————————————————————-

The next 3 parts(final panels, editing + digitization, self publishing) will be in the part 2 of this tutorial.

I just bought a book called ‘Making Comics’ by Scott McCloud. I can’t recommend it because I haven’t read it yet, but it stood out from all the other ‘how to make comics’ books I could find. Instead of teaching you how to imitate the style of other comics etc., it concentrates on how to construct a good story, effective panel layout, what to show and what not to show in those panels and stuff like that, which is exactly what I need. It also seems that master storyteller Neil Gaiman recommends it so it’s definitely worth a look. I’m hoping it will improve my comic writing abilities.

- Hamish S.

April 4, 2013

Abyssus Abyssum Invocat

Here’s an interesting trailer for the short film Abyssus Abyssum Invocat (2012) by Wes Simpkins. Haven’t seen the full film yet but I’ll be on the lookout for it.

My friend and video artist Diego Ramirez put me on to it.

March 31, 2013

Transitioning from Experimental to Narrative

I want to make animations. I’ve known this for a while, but I’m just starting to come to certain realisations… that I want my work to be experimental and different from conventional media out there… but most of all, that I want to make animation with a strong narrative element. Narrative and story have a hell of a lot of power to them, and if it’s done right and isn’t purely the ‘same old shit’ it can change people or just make people think. Abstract animations, or animation without story are really interesting and I love a lot of them, however my interests definitely lie in slightly more conventional territory. Fear not though, my work will still be really fucking odd.

Narrative is a huge concept and can be pretty abstract so there is still shitloads of room to do varied and different things with it. Previously the majority of my work and animations have been experimental and if they had a narrative focus, it was secondary to other things I was trying to do at the time. I did this for several reasons, one of which i think was that I found comfort in pure experimentation and lack of adhering to any conventions. I’ve decided to bite the bullet and train myself to make the best narrative works I possibly can, even if that means my first few are completely lame and don’t really work(which is a definite possibility).

I’m currently working on a 3 part comic Zine and two narrative animations. I’ve never really written dialogue or characters before so I’ve got my work cut out for me. I’m finding that the comic zine is a really good exercise in writing for characters because I can write a lot of dialogue and a lot can happen in the scene; yet it won’t take me over a year to actually produce the work from script. It’s still visual but it’s quicker than animation and useful because I have trouble writing something if i know I’m never going to use it.

One of the animators that I look up to and respect, M Dot Strange has previously talked about aspects of his work and the order of importance he places in them. He puts 4 of aspects in order of more to less important.

Mood

Story

Character

Originality

I agree with him and feel that this ordering is important. Originality is important, however it isn’t the MOST important aspect with the kind of work I want to create. Story and Character are extremely important; however because I’m not interested in realism, Mood and world building are key to creating an effective final piece. These are all important aspects which need to be worked on, but putting them in order helps to make my goals and priorities clear when creating work.

It’s going to be a long(and possibly embarrassing) haul but it’s time to truly start.

Happy easter!

-Hamish .S