Canterbury Anifest 5-6th October 2012

With recently getting a new job to pay for supplies and networking purposes to kick start my career as a Stop-frame animator, this gave me opportunity to go to a festival i've been looking forward to go to since last year i couldn't make it due to other commitments, at first i was going down as puplic but found myself as a volunteer from the night before the festival meeting people i knew who were already taking part from Birmingham City University and other festivals.

Sophie Graves and myself

First task as a volunteer was to prepare the plastercine characters for the 'Plastercine people: Masterclass From Animate and Create Studio' later on in the day, which was great to get to know other people of mutual interest over some plastercine and a great set of tools to work with.

Tony Dalton and myself before - Ray Harryhausen-The Godfather

Later on that day i got the chance to go to a talk on Ray Harryhausen the Godfather of Stop-motion with the curator of the Ray Harryhausen collection and auther of five books about Rays film work Tony Dalton was a delight to meet such a nice guy and willing to talk about so much of Rays work.

Jessica,Cassidy Curtis,Sophie and myself

DreamWorks - Meet the Lion tamer

Cassidy Curtis is Dreamworks supervising animator for the summer blockbuster Madagascar 3 animating Alex the Lion and from the moment the volunteers and myself met him we kind of saw a resemblence between Cassidy and Alex the lion wether that was coinsidence or character driven choice from the director.

Cassidy was a great pleasure to meet as Dan the festival organiser said "you've got to love Cassidy because he's just one big yank". The talk was great having a whole range of things to talk about from working on a range of films including 'How to train a Dragon','Shrek' and 'Madagascar'.

Talking about the age old question for cg animators 'Do you Have to be able to draw to animate well?' and we got to the reasoning that some people can still animate really well without drawing but it will always help and elevate your work and so answer being it can always help your animation skills what ever level of an animator you are.

Then also as you see in the image above here Cassidy was pointing out the difference in Shrek in 3d and in 2d to show how the points in the arm and shape of the pose can focus the eye of the audience intentionally very well. Then in 3d this doesn't come so easily.

Aardman- How to talk Pirate

Pirate Captain From Pirates

Jim Parkyn talking through the making and animating of the models, including the rapid prototyping mouth technique which enabled the characters to speak. There was also behind-the-scenes clips which were great to see as more studio shots from pirates were shown of sketches and photos of the puppet building process.

Charles Darwin from Pirates

Also looked forward to talking with Jim again at Flip Festival in Wolverhampton where i volunteered.

Double Negative- Making Monsters

Eamonn Butler talking about behind the scenes of John Carter was great because i was surprised how much i enjoyed the film as because of the reviews before it came out. The special effects had so much thought into it was great to see what they'd use in the green screen before made for the audience to see.

Pixar: Inside the toy box 

Dan McCoy Pixars technical director discussed some of the complications and problems that pixar have tackled from the technical side with telling us how some things could be re-used for more than one thing same with cheat techniques.

My hotel room view instant view from anytime of the day of the Canterbury Cathedral

anyone not been to Canterbury Anifest i recommend its a great festival and worth volunteers so many great speakers, also check out Animate and Create.

http://www.canterburyanifest.com/what-is-anifest/

http://animateandcreate.com

Ss2- London's Sculpture,Culture and Film Memorabilia

photo take in between shots on Street Act

 Some photos from the V&A in London last weekend, these are sculptures which i found all interested me from a Animation perspective as well as the obvious great detail that each one has, while animating i noticed a great deal of importance in keeping a pose a exaggerating everything to give a natural sense that makes what you're looking at realistic.
The photo at the top is of one of my characters in the middle of a scene reaching into his hat, the other point in looking at these sculptures was because of the sense of while looking at them you don't feel like they're posing but in the middle of something like the one below for example there is a great line of action which conveys movement a lot better which is what has influenced me to create longer lasting poses and get that line of action every time.

V and A

the line from hands right to the knee's

same sculpt from a different angle

Shadow silhouette

 Another thing that came across when animating after being to London was if my puppet was a silhouette would i know exactly what it was doing straight away,using each limb to bring across what a character is doing, look at the shadow of the sculpt above to see a great example.

Show power and authority with just one pose

Never boxing a character in, show exactly where everything would be in comparison before starting like  with a pose how a character would get there when animating.

Also something which i don't take into enough consideration is lighting

subtle movements always count to give something more life

Getting the the best angle while animating can make a total difference like these two images

 Great lighting and shape on this sculpt

bringing across the mood instantly

agression and chaos

These are great pieces which i remembered from a previous visit, especially the middle one the great detail to all the muscles and limbs and the effect light has brings texture and three dimensional quality.

London Film Museum

BIG BEN

Then hopped on the tube to the London Film Museum which was where the photo was taken from, once we got past all the crowds of tourists on the bridge and next to the eye we finally got into the museum.

Totally geeking out at all the things at the museum including a charlie chaplin section which i didnt know about until we got there,Ray Harryhausen gallery,Harry Potter section and a most amusing horror section with zombie heads.

chilling by a bizarre chaplin poster

recording device

Wind machine

Costume worn by Peter Sellers for Dr Strange Love

old school filming equipment 

Superman Costume from the latest version

And of course the batman costume!

Model of how the bear would look for Golden Compass

Harry Potter

Brumes and books from their classes used on the films

Last costumes of the three main 

Frame from Roger Rabbit

After a great day of seeing a lot of Sculpture, culture and film memorabilia it was time to get back to Euston station and get back to Birmingham in time to fix puppets ready for the next week of Animating on Street Act.

Ss2- Patience is important to produce best outcome

Great day once everything started going right,got back in the studio the lighting had changed and the set had moved then the tool for my rig was left at home. Once all the problems had been addressed i moved onto the next which was more of a challenge using my rig for the first time and green screening it.


For the action of it i decided to shoot it on 1's to get a smoother outcome and without it looking like it needs in-betweens, from what i did today i was very pleased all of it had nearly every animation principle with the use of bouncing a ball squash and stretch was the main one,attempting to exaggerate each and every pose to bring a much better outcome.


Reason being for the cliché  caption above basically the whole day has been animating one scene where so many things had to be watched and made sure nothing alters also with the use of green screen the one thing i had to remember was to always take two shots for every frame one being with green in one without.


all in all to evaluate my animation so far i would say that today had the most successful scene with the movement and the timing coming together nicely, also feel that i have been very critical on every scene but at the same time i want to be improving so I've decided not to dwell on something i don't like and go right to the end of the scene and once everything has been put together analyse it.


Oh yeh and I'm only going to Ray Harryhausen - myths and legends exhibition tomorrow! i am so excited saw some of his work exhibited in bristol before but not to this scale such a true pioneer for animation. Will be a great day off from a long week and spend some time around london, where there is chance to get any photos or sketches in i will post up as soon as i arrive back.

RAY HARRYHAUSEN - MYTHS AND LEGENDS EXHIBITION
*****EXTENDING TILL JUNE 2012***

EXTENDED UNTIL JUNE 2012 BY POPULAR DEMAND

Entitled "Ray Harryhausen - Myths and Legends" - the exhibition focuses on the work of Ray Harryhausen and showcases the techniques he used to bring his Dynamation creatures to life.

The launch date was an extra special one as this was also Ray’s 90th Birthday.

Ray Harryhausen Special Effects Titan : new teaser


Ray is the father of modern day special effects. Without his imagination and wonderful fantasy films made in the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s there would probably be no George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Nick Park or Peter Jackson. It was Ray who inspired these fantasy filmmakers and it is to him that each one credits Ray as their inspiration.

Ray began his art after seeing King Kong (1933) and following his first feature film Mighty Joe Young in 1949 went on to develop a technique known as Dynamation, which is a process that allows animated models to be integrated with live action. Other films followed, amongst which were The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms(1952), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad(1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), One Million Years BC(1966), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and Clash of the Titans (1981).


These classic films 'starred' such creations at Cyclops, dragons, living skeleton warriors, a Medusa, a giant crab, scorpions and bees and of course dinosaurs.



The exhibition has been put together by the London Film Museum Advisory Panel including Leslie Hardcastle (founder of MOMI) and Jonathan Sands (Chief Executive of the museum), and with kind permission from The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.It was funded by the museum and a contribution is made to the Foundation on an ongoing basis.

The exhibition will be with us until June 2012 and is included in the entrance cost of the museum.

A true inspiration

The Art Of Ray Harryhausen

I thought today this had to be purchased whatever the cost the paperback of the art of ray harryhausen after recently going to a small gallery of his and being inspired and wanting to see more of his work if anyone is an animator and hasn't heard of him (which is highly unlikely) check him out and most of his early films are at good prices on dvd online.