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- Visualising performance through acting for animating

Acting out scenes to visualise animation better and get a better understanding of timing

Acting out a scene from 'Street Act' Ben and myself in the photo.

First day in the greenroom all set up, but the story really wasn't at the standard i knew it could be so spoke with a few people then got on with re-creating the parts of the story which didn't tickle my fancy. Took three steps today, first was to bullet point all of the parts which were key when animating,second going over each part to make everything work,thirdly most benifitial was to act out each scene and get each part spot on.


In total with the help of fellow animator Ben Whitehouse (greatly appreciated) we acted out the whole story with alterations in points and finding what worked while watching back the catalogue of about 20 takes of the story acted out which has helped to be able to visualise and understand the movements of each of the characters always trying to bring out a better performance each time also thinking about line of action throughout oddly enough and i wasn't animating.


Next stage will be to import the videos and see which will be best to go with to import to Dragonframe and add to a dope sheet (X-Sheet) which will aid me while animating and create a better understanding of timing rather than taking the whole animation on a whim from the storyboards.


Everything else is an all go at uni my characters and set all ready may need a coat of paint on the hands of each of the characters to make more of an impact when the animation gets de-colourized, only other thing sorting out editing with my second years which i'm expecting won't have to many toubles rigging,de-colourize and introduction and end credits.

FOR TODAY!