Final Animation

Within my animation I aimed to explore the everyday of abandoned dogs, not so much in what they do everyday, but the idea that dogs are abandoned everyday in London. As previously mentioned because we do not see stray dogs roaming around the city as in others abroad (eg barcelona) it is easy to believe that the abandonment of dogs is uncommon, however this is not true. For this reason I visited Battersea Dogs and Cats rescue home who take in abandoned animals daily, and also noticed that some breeds (notably Staffordshire Cross) were much more common than others, as well as visitors tending to not even look at these breeds. All of which I wanted to convey in my animation.

My final animation depicts a dogs who is abandoned, a Staffordshire Cross specifically to illustrate their commonality within Battersea and dogs homes alike. The initial scene where the dog has its support of its owners' hands removed and plummets is intended to convey the dog being abandoned. I decided to keep this fairly vague, simply showing the hands being drawn away, because to start alluding to reasons and ways that dogs are abandoned was not something that I wanted to explore in the animation. Inspired by Gabriel Orzoco's 'Dial Tone' I created a digital sea of statistics concerning dogs abandoned in London collated from various abandoned dogs databases I found on the internet. Taking the form of a sea illustrates how vast these databases are and in turn the large amount of dogs being abandoned; the dog being submerged in this signifies that it has now become a part of this database. This is reiterated as the data transforms into bars and forms a cage around the dog, confined and restricted by being little more than another abandoned Staffordshire Cross, as well as the physical cage. The dog is now rendered in pencil, setting up a contrast from the previous watercolours which were used, thus highlighting again how it is no longer unique or any different from the other dogs. Further enforced by having only one visitor glance at the dog but quickly fade and two faces turn away, representing the visitors that I observed at Battersea. They are also in pencil and disappear as ink in water to portray both their fleeting and elusive nature, and the sombre atmosphere within the dogs home. The circular motion of the dog is a subtle hint at the cycle and ongoing nature of abandoned dogs, and followed by the end scene where the dog is becomes simply another statistic. The animation was shot in 16:9 a popular format at the present time, signify that the abandonment of dogs is currently occurring, not just in past years. For the audio I used a sound piece which I recorded on one of my visit to Battersea. The many dogs barking illustrates the sheer amount that are abandoned but also as they are not represented visually, the notion of visitors not even looking at particular dogs is echoed, by forcing the audience into doing the same thing. The sound of the dog whining evokes empathy from the audience, conveying the fairly sombre and sad tone that the animation has. I am fairly pleased with the final outcome, however I think that aesthetically, the animation could be improved, not only by the quality of the drawings in areas, but also in shooting; the exposure in certain parts needs to be adjusted, and the paper edge can also be seen.

Book Research

I looked briefly at Simon Pummel for his use of shadow animation and digital animation. Particularly in The secret joy of falling angels the animation depicts figures that move away from the 'cartoon' shape and draw influence from renaissance drawings, applying shadows to basic oval shapes to aid a lifelike quality.

Reference photos

A few photographs of my dog who I got from Battersea.

Southbank day project

The photos below were taken along Southbank for the one day project. I began by taking a photograph of the clouds and then from there the series transformed into an exploration of sky and ground and how the gap is sometimes bridged, for example cranes, aeroplanes, skyscrapers, birds.

OBSERVATIONAL

A few observational studies taken from my sketch book, at both the initial stages when thinking about the homeless, and throughout the project with sketches made at Battersea dogs home.

Change

After a bit of thought I've slightly adapted my idea to focus on instead of homeless people, homeless dogs. I don't believe that i would have been able to give an accurate portrayal of living as a homeless person, even after talking to people who have worked with them, and so the animation would simply be my perception rather than theirs.

I will still be working in the style of traditional animation, and use pencil to portray not only the sombre atmosphere, but also the fleeting and almost elusive quality of the visitors at a dog home. This will be coupled with reference to some photos I have taken of ink dispersing in water.

We don't see hundreds of strays running all over London and therefore its easy to think that there aren't many of them, but this isn't true and I think its quite important to portray this within my animation, and enforce that the subject is very much part of our everyday. It was suggested that maybe i include documents that relate to stray dogs, and after seeing the Gabriel Orzoco exhibition i was inspired by his piece 'Dial Tone' which was made from a telephone book. I researched online and found a database of lost dogs which i think may work well if presented in a similar way to Dial Tone.

grace walk

dog rotate 2

2nd walk

walk final template

walkk

London by William Blake

I wandered through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
A mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:

How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down palace-walls.

But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse.

Sestina of the Tramp-Royal

Sestina of the Tramp-Royal

BY RUDYARD KIPLING

1896

Speakin’ in general, I ’ave tried ’em all—

The ’appy roads that take you o’er the world.

Speakin’ in general, I ’ave found them good

For such as cannot use one bed too long,

But must get ’ence, the same as I ’ave done,

An’ go observin’ matters till they die.

What do it matter where or ’ow we die,

So long as we’ve our ’ealth to watch it all—

The different ways that different things are done,

An’ men an’ women lovin’ in this world;

Takin’ our chances as they come along,

An’ when they ain’t, pretendin’ they are good?

In cash or credit—no, it aren’t no good;

You ’ave to ’ave the ’abit or you’d die,

Unless you lived your life but one day long,

Nor didn’t prophesy nor fret at all,

But drew your tucker some’ow from the world,

An’ never bothered what you might ha’ done.

But, Gawd, what things are they I ’aven’t done?

I’ve turned my ’and to most, an’ turned it good,

In various situations round the world—

For ’im that doth not work must surely die;

But that's no reason man should labour all

’Is life on one same shift—life’s none so long.

Therefore, from job to job I’ve moved along.

Pay couldn’t ’old me when my time was done,

For something in my ’ead upset it all,

Till I ’ad dropped whatever ’twas for good,

An’, out at sea, be’eld the dock-lights die,

An’ met my mate—the wind that tramps the world!

It’s like a book, I think, this bloomin’ world,

Which you can read and care for just so long,

But presently you feel that you will die

Unless you get the page you’re readin’ done,

An’ turn another—likely not so good;

But what you’re after is to turn ’em all.

Gawd bless this world! Whatever she ’ath done—

Excep’ when awful long I’ve found it good.

So write, before I die, ‘’E liked it all!’

So my initial intentions for the brief is to create something fairly emotive, and dramatic and possibly cinematic. The everyday could be a fairly monotonous and boring especially if it relates to a universal audience, therefore i had the idea of portraying an everyday that isn't likely to be the everyday of most people. At the moment i'm thinking of illustrating the activities of a tramp, which the 2D, pencil style drawings i used in the last animation will work well with, showing the grubby, untidy appearance of the tramp. I have a couple of artists/ composers in mind to accompany the animation, either Thomas Newman or Burial, but am undecided on the specific song.

Raspberry Duet

This was made by some of the advertising students where I went to uni last year. Its just a funny twist on the everyday, and although fairly simple in principle, highly entertaining.

The Art of Drowning

The style of this animation works harmoniously with its audio (a poem) in creating this sober atmosphere depicting the notion of life flashing before your eyes when drowning. The quality of the drawings and the fluidity of the the images is something that I would like to aim for in my work. The pairing of the visual with a poem or a reading is also a concept i find interesting.

Sukki's Story

I really like how some frames are out of focus and there are lens glares in this animation, rendering it slightly cinematic and in a way re-contextualising the piece.

Tina's traditional Animation-DING! (aka Peeps)

sketchbook animation

The everyday for me generally involves my sketchbook and so its an idea to have that shown in my animation.

Who I am and What I want

PORTOBELLO FILM FESTIVAL 2011 STING ENTRY

when nothing happens - Grace Russell

when nothing happens - Grace Russell

when nothing happens - Grace Russell

NYC - Mindrelic Timelapse from Mindrelic on Vimeo.

London Underground LEGO animation

Conductor New York Metro

Seeingsound

Final Animation for Seeing Sound

In response to Ryoji Ikeda's 'One Minute', I created an animation documenting the routine of a University student. I attempted to echo the monotony and quietness of the sound by repeating the action of working - a movement that isn't generally fast paced or exciting, but is often done in a very quiet and solitary environment, and enforced this feeling of boredom by showing the figure falling asleep. The brief explosions of sounds are illustrated by scenes that are not as subdued, a party for one (often associated with students) and drinking a shot of coffee, both of which connote explosiveness, energy, and fast paced, powerful actions, and in the case of the party- loud noise. The fact that the sound piece ends in this louder, more violent way, for me, suggested a sense of unrest and something more sinister, and so I played on the feelings of repetition, work and becoming a drone like, leading to the metaphorical image of the human becoming a machine. Binary codes, that not only portray the bionic but are also repetitive, flash in and out of the animation to signify this, increasing their appearances' at the louder intervals to enforce the notion of unsettlement, becoming the final image to end on. The animation was also shot in a 16:9 format which is at current times a very popular format, signifying again the link between technology and human.

One Minute

Ryoji Ikeda - One Minute

Soundwave

Initial ideas

On first receiving the brief I put the sound track on repeat and brainstormed words, emotions, ideas that came to mind. Chinese factory workers came to mind, laboriously repeating the some action in a production line, and then rebellion; a factory plant and some kind of machine malfunction; global warming, the constant flicking of a switch leading to the endangered animals; the beat of the heart speeding up at intervals and eventually leading to a heart attack, these were a mere few, which eventually lead to my idea of the documentation of university life.

I also made some very quick visual studies while listening to the track.

My temporary work station.

Some initial drawings for the global warming idea.

Attempting to add a bit of humour into the piece.

Drawing on ideas of morse code, brail, sheet music, and simply just the movement my hand made that felt like an appropriate response to the music.

one minute tester

one minute tester

one minute tester

coffee tester take 2

Ryoji Ikeda...

...the Japanese composer and sound artist, is fascinated with the niceties of ultrasonics, frequencies and the indispensable elements of sound in relation with human perception and the mathematical dianoia applied to music, time and space. 'One minute' moves from industrial to ambient with puritanical sounds that speed up and briefly deviate into something more explosive and violent, a rush, but is tamed soon enough to return to the pulsing, monotony evoking notions of morse code, binary, stream of data, a "digital pulse" and in turn (for me) unearths connotations of work, the drone of the rat race, and those explosions are that of the brief irregularities, out of routine moments where things are not so consistent.

one minute tester

This is a 'tester' for the Seeing Sound brief, which I have decided will be a visual response to the sound clip entitled "one minute". For me the piece evokes a sense a routine and monotony, steady and consistent for the majority, with brief disruptions of sporadic, untamed, in-cohesive sounds, rendering the piece oxymoronic.

one minute experiment

BAA

I watched the BAA (British Animation Awards) 2007 a few days ago and these are the one's I most enjoyed:

Adjustment by Ian Mackinnon

Life Size Zoetrope Mark Simon Hewis

Something which is true in both animations is the success of mix media use.The combination of 2D, 3D, photography, film and drawings creates an exciting aesthetic that maintains the interest of the audience in a subject that, like a lot of documentary film, may over wise be considered as uninteresting. The viewpoint from which the art is presented is also a contributing factor to this, fighting the norm and being seen through the eyes of the narrator, invading the viewer's space so that they themselves become part of the work; or presented on pages of multiple sketchbooks held by anonymous whilst riding on a Meteorite fairground ride.

Polar bears search for food - David Attenborough - BBC wildlife

The Cove

I've watched this documentary around five times now; its challenging for a film to be able to retain the audience's attention after five viewings, and so very impressive for a documentary to be able to do this. Unsurprisingly it was the Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and Academy Award for best documentary 2009. Ric O'Barry's passion becomes infectious through the screen as he exposes the annual killing of dolphins in a Quasi-National Park at Taiji, Wakayama, in Japan, and he and a crew of activists take on their 'mission impossible' to film and unearth the horrific events that occur in the cove. For me this is a great example of a documentary and really influential in the making of my own.

'When did we lose our voices?' Grace and Rose

Mine, Rose and Harriet's animation

Fahrenheit 9/11

Farhenheit 9/11 is my choice of documentary video. Created by Michael Moore the film looks to expose the truths and conspiracies surrounding 9/11, heavily criticising the American security system, false values and patriotism and of course the stupidity of George W. Bush. Candid interviews with politicians, archived film footage and a running commentary from Moore himself juxtaposes the sombre subject matter, and forces smiles and laughs throughout. For me the film takes on the challenging task of choosing a sobering medium and places it into a new context through use humour, becoming informative and entertaining.

Jan Švankmajer

I recently watched a video showing the early works of Jan Švankmajer, aka the god father of surrealist animations and features, and gained a lot of insight into the diversity which can be achieved through time based image making. His trademarks of absurd sounds often eating, bringing food to life along with a whole other host of inanimate objects, and perspective through the eyes of a child are combined with aggressive and unsettling scenes or plots. Yet I was surprised that in result of this the films became almost comical whether from their sheer madness or Švankmajer's flippant approach to the disturbing nature of the film. My personal favourite had to be the living fence.

You may now begin...

Nicolas Provost

Nicolas Provost's first solo exhibition is currently being help at the Haunch of Venison, London. The film maker's short films play with multiple aspect of the medium, challenging sound, transitions, time, narrative and form, merging visual art with cinematography. In 'Stardust' fact is entwined with fiction, documentary art with hollywood movies; by a simple pairing with intense, emotive soundtrack and a clever arrangement of clips (filmed with a hidden camera), the film echoes a Hollywood film. In 'Long Live the New Flesh' Provost turns again to the mass media combining clips from popular horror movies in an fresh experimental technique, where each image morphs into another through pixelation and break down of images at climactic points so the end result is a new, 'whole' film.

Diana Thater

Until the 5th of March Hauser & Wirth's Piccadilly gallery plays host to Diana Thater's video instillation entitled 'Chernobyl'. The piece continues to convey Thater's fascination with the relationship between culture and nature, depicting the post-nuclear 'Zone of Alienation' in Chernobyl. The oxymoronic landscape hosts both decaying manufactured structures and the thriving rare and endangered Przewalki's Horse; illustrating an area where man-made has perished, and the organic has flourished. Thater's instillation overlaps the two footages by use of projectors, submersing the audience into a somewhat contrasting world to what they are familiar, pushing the question to how something beautiful can come of a man-made catastrophe.

DOCUMENTARY

A documentary is a non fictional 'slice of life', based on facts and evidence it is an attempt to capture 'the truth'. Reportage it is not, however. Although a documentary is a depiction of reality, it can only be reality as seen through the eyes of the artist, and therefore can never be objective, and is almost exclusively subjective. Documentary is lead by an individuals opinion and so can transform a subject that may seem banal into a topic filled with interest and depth. It is an attempt to 'humanise' humanity just a little bit more.

Starting out.

Some of my previous experience with animation. Like to see some progress.