Final Major Project - Animation Experiment Four.

Animating a piece of imagery from "Night Mail" By W.H.Auden

The selected imagery I chose to animate was;

"In the farm she passes no one wakes, But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes"

The Train in this animation was created using the technique of maintaing form and changing the colour of the object, which I had previously discovered was visually interesting.
The background was created using envelopes which I felt suited the theme of the poem. Water for the Jug in the foreground was also created from the interior of envelopes which were cut in a number of shapes and replaced each frame to mimic the movement of water.

From this experiment I have noticed the possibilities of using mixed media to create an interesting environment, therefore shall keep this in mind for future animating.

Final Major Project - Animation Experiment Three.

Painting a Walk Cycle in a Loose Style.

Each frame was quickly and loosely painted onto a post-it note using watercolour, the frames were not traced but were inaccurately copied from a set of photographs of a pelican walking taken by Eadweard Muybridge. The colour changing style was inspired by animator Jeff Scher's method of maintaing the shape but changing the colouring.

This experiment I felt achieved a very styalised and visually interesting effect and one which I may consider in my final animation. When using this technique again it will be helpful to have a series of photographs such as Muybridge's to work from.

Now that I have experiemented with some animation techniques I shall begin to create animations that are poerty inspired.

Final Major Project - Animation Experiment Two.

Rotoscoping & Moving Environment Experiment

The purpose of this experiment was to practise rotoscoping a moving object and also to discover how to create an environment on Macromedia Flash which moved in order to give the illusion of the figure walking.

To rotoscope the walking figure I traced over a series of photographs on Adobe Photoshop and then deleted frames which exceeded the walk cycle.
The moving environment and flying bird were created on Flash using the motion tween to mark were I wanted the ground to begin from and finish moving.

Evaluation: Since carrying out this experiment I have learnt how it is possible to give the illusion of a walking character in a moving environment. If I am to use this method again, If possible, I shall try to take a burst of photographs of the object moving on a plain and contrasting coloured background which would make it easier to trace.

Final Major Project - Animation Experiment

Dialogue Mouth Shapes in Loose Style Experiment.

This experiment was to investigate the effect of animating together frames which were hand drawn in a loose, freehand style rather than a clean and photoshop assisted approach. This method was influenced by the earlier works of Johnathan Hodgson.

The figures head in the animation is created using oil pastel and watercolour and is looped going through nine shapes in which the mouth makes during dialogue.

From this experiment I have discovered that when rough images are animated together in a sequence, the looseness works well and produces an energetic feel. If the head had been left static and only the mouth shapes altered, this energetic feel would have not been achieved.

"Ritual" - Creative Media Project Three

Frames for the animation below were created on Photoshop followed by animating in Macromedia Flash. The head was modled in plasticine and photographed before being added to the digitally generated scenario.

For the theme of 'Ritual' the focus was on daily rituals in the form of routines and habits. The animation displays a characters coffee routine where the event reoccurs at the same times ritualistically.

Coffee Ritual Animation.


Following on from the last I decided to create another animation, this time involving collage including text and photographs, For example in the cereal box.

Breakfast Ritual Animation.

Animation Workshop

Below are four short animations created on Macromedia Flash as experiments, learning the basics of animating.

This animation was created by rotoscoping frames of Eadweard Muybridge's photography in my notepad followed by scanning each page.


The teapot and cup were created free-hand onscreen using a wacom graphics tablet.


The coffee jug was created again using a graphics tablet, this time on photoshop saving .jpeg's of each mouth position ready for lipsyncing. Two versions were saved of each position, each with the glasses and coffee in slightly different positions so that when varied the jug would appear to be less static.


The hand drawn method as used for the horse was used again for each mouth position ready for lip syncing.

Creative Media Project One

Stop-motion animation ideas responding to Paul Klee's painting "Specter of a Genius".

1.) Recreating image as an animation.

2.) "Taking a line for a walk" - Concept of Klee's animated.

3.) Adding in Klee's strong use of colour with the growing line.

* Monday 18th January 2010 *

4.) Using torn blocks of colouring, Growing Line and introduction of transparent areas.