Thursday, 4 June 2015

                         Task 1 - Research into Animation (Wallace and Gromit)

Wallace and Gromit is a British stop-motion comedy animation series created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series is based on a man (Wallace) and his strangely clever dog (Gromit).  The genre is comedy and the audience is large going from kids to adults. The work created aims to entertain the audience in a very humorous, sometimes unrealistic way. The projects aren't released every day, in fact the audience have to wait for another production literally years due to how long it takes to create, design and produce the films. This is because even a few seconds will take a couple of days for the crew. The use of close ups and shots that don't show the feet allow the team to show the viewers a more natural feel when watching the production as only the top half of most characters are animated in frames.  The characters are made from plasticine modelling clay. The rare movies are shot one frame at a time, moving the models of the characters slightly aids in giving the impression of movement to the audience. In common with other animation techniques, the stop motion animation used in Wallace and Gromit may duplicate frames if there is little motion. Some effects like fire, smoke, and flying rabbits in well known production of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit were impossible to do in stop motion and had to be rendered on computer. The feature-length The Curse of the Were-Rabbit took 15 months to make. It's important for people to be extra cautious with the cameras, the characters and the lighting for continuity purposes. There's a whole team who work together to ensure the set is exactly the same the next filming day. The crew would take pictures from every angle to ensure all is the same as they continue production. Seeing the footage in context allows the production team to determine whether a certain scene or sequence works effectively or if and how it can be improved.

Sunday, 31 May 2015

Final Animation Project.


Here it is, my Animation based on Time Travel. I'd really appreciate some detailed feedback from you guys as it will help when comparing and discussing the compliments and constructive critisicm during my podcast in which I am to evaluate this project and the course overall.

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Things to consider.


Animation evaluation and how to finish

Over half term I will check blogs for tasks 1-4. You need to work on collecting feedback (task 5) and starting your evaluation (task 6). After half term we will screen your work to the class and I will give additional feedback. Then we can work on finishing evaluations.

Please check the brief and make sure that you have uploaded the following to your blog. 

Task 1: research into the history of animation
Task 2: Treatment and pitch
Task 3: Production portfolio (use checklist and or brief – include as much as you can)
Task 4: Finished production (post to blog or to Youtube and embed the link)
Task 5: feedback (see below, start over half term)
Task 6: Evaluation (see brief, start over half term)


Collect 3 types of feedback:

1.    Discussion – verbal feedback from teachers, other students, target audience
2.    Questionnaires/focus group questions
3.    Reviews and feedback from online exhibition (blog and or Youtube)

Post feedback to your blog
Use the feedback to write your evaluation, details for evaluation are on the brief but the client and audience feedback is most important

Questions for the class/audience:

Who would you say is the target audience?
Where would you expect this animation to be screened/available?
What do you think about the technical qualities? (camera, editing, animation)
What about the aesthetic qualities? Does it look good/professional
Does the animation show much creativity?
What do you think about the content and storyline?
What do you think about the visual style? (set and colours)
Is the character movement smooth?
What do you think about the sound effects and music used?
What are the strengths?
Can you think of any areas for improvement?