The Fat Cat - Mole Hill Animation

I found this winner of the Depict 90 Second Film category and really loved the music, style, political undertone and character design. What I find amazing is that it is stop motion using 'etched wax'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTAGUT0v8uo

Music video inspiration

This music video really caught my eye. I love the bold graphics and the mix of live action with animation (both traditionally and also projected on to actors). I am considering a similar process for my final film.

Animation Scriptwriting

I am currently reading Paul Wells's book 'Scriptwriting' which focuses mainly on the genre of Animation. He summarises the 'language' of animation via the categories below - which interestingly, are actually not dissimilar to John Halas's (Animal Farm) musings on the subject in the 1940's:

Metamorphosis - The ability to facilitate change from one form to another without edit.

Condensation - The maximum degree of suggestion in the minimum of imagery.

Anthropomorphism - The imposition of human traits on animals, objects and environments.

Fabrication - The physical and material creation of imaginary figures and spaces.

Penetration - The visualisation of unimaginable psychological/physical/technical 'interiors'.

Symbolic Association - The use of abstract visual signs and their related meanings.

Sound Illusion - The completely artificial construction of a soundtrack to support the intrinsic silence of animated forms.

Beagle Sketch

Rough sketch of my character design for a beagle for my final project

Double Exposure Title Sequence

I absolutely adore this title sequence for the series 'True Detective'. It utilises a 'double exposure style' which is compelling and quite mysterious. The company Elastic aimed to only show glimpses of characters and locations as to give a feel of the program without giving too much away. They also claim that 'Incomplete shots and broken portraits illustrate the internal struggle within each character'.

Documentary Animation

I have been researching Documentary Animation in preparation for the creation of my own. The videos below are excellent examples of using animation/motion graphics to bring history to life in a visually interesting way. The Amnesty International film has more of a narrative and central character, but I do like the Silhouette style of animation. The History of Nintendo makes creative use of motion graphics and I am a fan of the cut out style of animation as seen in Illuminating Photography.

Amnesty International

The History of Nintendo

Illuminating Photography animation

After Effects Practice

I am currently trying to learn After Effects through Youtube, Adobe TV, Video Co-pilot and an actual book!

Here is a quick piece that I composited. The man was originally in front of a green screen with filming paraphernalia around him. I used a mask to cut out the background and keylight  to get rid of the green screen. I animated a jpeg  background of clouds and the mask feather and opacity. I also added a rain effect and changed the saturation and colour curves of the components.

Original:

Edited: