Presentation

The following images are screenshots from my presentation.

Activity Log

These are screenshots of my activity log, where I recorded what I did every Wednesday from the beginning of the project. It helped me see my progress and what I still needed to do.

Future Plans

After finishing my animation, I can see how it would be helpful for future reference and plans. I feel that it would be a very good teaching tool, as previously mentioned. As I have included a strip of text at the bottom throughout the video explaining what each idiom was, there is no guessing or ambiguity involved. However, if I took this element out then it would be much less obvious as to what the meaning behind each idiom was, and it would be handy in helping others try to understand the concepts of idioms. As far as it being a teaching tool is concerned, I plan to try out my idea and see if it genuinely would be a convenient way to teach people about English sayings.
What I plan to do is have a class full of either foreigners or children, then showing them the video without the text and have them right down what they believe each idiom is, and see how accurate they are. I think it would be interesting to see just how helpful and relevant my animation is as a second opinion is always beneficial. Then depending on the answers, I could help them understand how each idiom works and the principle behind it.

What follows is my lesson plan.

Evaluation

The research I did helped me to decide which channel of animation I would use, as I knew what had worked well previously and which I think was more of a success. Also helpful in deciding this were my drafts, as I'd had experience using different types of animation and from this I knew where my strengths were and which I had difficulty with. Originally I had planned for my final piece to be similar to the 'Olympus Pen' advertisement, but subsequently due to changes that I'll explain later, it didn't turn out as planned. I instead feel my animation can be compared to most other stop motion animations. As I didn't want my animation to be the same as everyone else's, and I didn't want it to be generic and mundane, I added several different types of animation. This includes 'drawn' animation, which can be seen at the beginning and end of the animation, and my computerized animation, seen on the 'clock' scene. When it came to these animations there was a fair amount of editing involved. For the drawn animation I used a whiteboard, and then desaturated them to make them smoother. I also inverted the ending as the scene before that is of a light switch being turned off so it's as though the writing is appearing on the darkness. Also when it came to creating my clock scene, I used quite a basic process. I drew a basic clock shape using Photoshop then animated it using the same program, simply using the same program. Then after this all I had to do was make it the same aspect ratio as the rest of my animation, and import it.

Release Forms

For my drafts, as was convenient, I used my two sisters for the acting parts. As my sisters are both under the age of fifteen I will need to have their mother sign a release form to permit me to broadcast the videos. I also used them for my final piece, but not only was this convenient but I also planned for the actors to be children anyway as it would enable my plot to make more sense.
I don't think using the same two actors has restricted my learning of the animation/film industry at all as only one of my drafts and my final piece feature them. This is as most of my drafts used styles of animations that actors were not needed for. However if this had been a bigger project and it had been in a working environment I would have needed to experiment with different gender and age actors. I understand the necessity of the release form thanks to this project.

Sound

For the sound element of my film I decided against including diegetic sounds, such as the girl crying and the lightswitch clicking, in favour of a song that fits the pace and tone of my animation. I feel this is appropriate as the in-scene sounds aren't really necessary and I think the animation as a whole would be better if it was tied together with a soundtrack. I had many initial thoughts for this though so I had to go through each suggestion and weigh up the pros and cons of including it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPZtigbbkz4

This first idea is 'In The Hall Of The Mountain King', but a remake by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. I initially thought of it as it has quite a prominent sound which could maybe compliment the jerkiness of my film, but I decided it was too dramatic and a bit too fast paced to fit well into the animation. Something I did like was that it started quiet and slow as it would fit with the girl waking up and starting her day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyu1KKwC74

This second song is 'Bittersweet Symphony' by The Verve, which I was initially interested in as it had such a well known and soft opening, which again I thought could compliment the very beginning of my animation. However I believe it to be too drab and slow paced, as well as being too formal to be part of such a light hearted and child-based video.

Final

Storyboard For Final

I have decided that for my final piece, I will create an animation which features around ten different idioms, all sourced from www.idiomsite.com. I will also be using several different types of animation to keep the content varied. I believe that linking all the idioms together to make a story, rather than just having a lot of shorts one after another, is a better idea as it will hold the audiences attention and have a more coherent plot. I think this piece will be very ambitious and take a lot of time and effort to be a success.

I plan for my animation to open with a drawn animation, using a white board to introduce the video with the title 'My Idiom Story'. This shot will then fade to show a bedroom, with a girl getting up and stretching with the sun rising behind the curtains. This will all be created using stop motion photography, but I will edit the sun rising after the animation has been made. This beginning portrays 'Rise and Shine'.

Sketches For Final

These are some of the key sketches that I will include in my storyboard that I feel are pivotal and important. I did these particular sketches so I'd know the angle and composition I'd use, and also all these sketches represent an idiom, which are the main points in my film. I did this to give a general overview as to what my storyboard will entail. It also gives me a better grasp of the planning I will need. There are only a few sketches here but I envisage my end storyboard to have around forty sketches, covering every angle of the animation. I think storyboards are very important when regarding films, as a lot of the time when you improvise the shot never comes out as professionally as it could have done if it was well planned.

This particular idiom will be 'Rise and Shine' with the girl getting out of bed as the sun rises behind the window. It's what I intend to start my animation with, as it has a symmetry as it would be the start of the girls day. This is the angle I plan to use, as I don't want the window or the girl to be dominant, I want an equal view of both so your attention doesn't lay with one area.

The next idiom I'm focusing on is half way through my animation, as the girl will bake a cake, then turn into one. So I think the important part of this is the cakes themselves, which I tied in with the 'Bakers' Dozen' idiom. Then after this, I included 'Finger Licking Good' to again, emphasise the cakes and lead up to the girl turning into one.

The last idiom I plan to use is 'Hit the hay' which the girl will literally do. Again I think this ties in nicely with the end of the animation as whole as the girls day ends, just as it began at the start of the animation.

Purpose

I've decided to alter my final piece from what was originally planned. Originally I had intended to do a short idiom animation, then maybe add two or three more if I had the time. Now however I've decided to change it so that I do still have several idiom animations, but more in the region of ten, and connecting them all so they make a story. I think this would be more beneficial as I would create a short film, around 3 minutes, all from stop motion. However I think that developing all these photographs as originally planned would be overly ambitious as there would be in the region of 2,500 photographs and I think this would be unrealistic. So I'm considering just having a portion developed so I don't lose the original idea entirely.

Draft Renditions

For this draft, I used the same images as my moving dummy animation but I wanted to play with the effects that were available in Final Cut Pro. I imported the images then immediately desaturated them, as I already had an idea in mind of how I wanted the final outcome of this draft to be. Next, I raised the contrast and lowered the brightness considerably to give it a spooky dark effect. Then, fortunately, I discovered an effect on Final Cut that gave the perfect filter on my video that gave me my desired effect. It was named 'bad film' effect and it gave a flickering, dated feel to the video as if it were a video created in an older time. This effect also made the jerkiness of the animation more apparent. The last effect I added was 'vignette' which gave the letterbox darkness to give it the final touches. I was really pleased with the outcome and I got the exact result I was after.
The reason I didn't use this draft first time round was because as my final piece was going to be aimed at children, I didn't need any drafts following a completely different theme. However I am glad I experimented with this, as it is a good reference for future projects.

6th Draft- Lego

This is a very basic animation experiment but I wanted to have the experience of working with inanimate objects. This way I have complete control over the subject and content of my video. I chose Lego as the subject as it wouldn't move by itself and it would be very easy to create the movement between photographs as I would only have to add one Lego brick at a time so the stages were planned already.
I chose to use a Lego kit that made a particular object as opposed to creating something freeform as it required less planning and less things could go wrong. I also knew that the end project would be of a dinosaur, so I'd be able to make it move around and animate it to give the video an interesting ending.

5th Draft- Moving Dummy

This is another stop motion photography animation that I created to experiment with the subject of animations. For this, I used a solid object as I would have more control over it's movement in each shot as opposed to a human seen in my 'Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk' draft. I used a tripod and lighting for this animation to keep it professional and neat, and I also used a backdrop so there wouldn't be distracting surroundings. I think all these aspects helped contribute to the animation's success, and I'm very pleased with the way it came out. The content is of an opposable dummy, which moves in different ways. Once again I didn't feel the need to storyboard this animation as I wasn't too sure about how flexible the model would have been, and also the movement is very limited so wouldn't have needed much planning anyway.

4th Draft- Drawn Animation

This is another type of animation that I've created to explore the different processes involved in animation. For this video in particular, I used a white board and portrayed an idiom through line drawing. I chose 'To Drink Like A Fish' as I felt this would be fairly easy to draw and wouldn't be too formal or serious and so drawing the basic outline of it would be suitable.
I didn't storyboard for this animation as I felt it would further complicate things, as I didn't know how much space would be available and how long I'd have to complete the animation. I decided that improvising the finer details wouldn't create too many problems. Subsequently, it took me around an hour using 150 photographs. I feel this was appropriate as the animation itself only lasts around 30 seconds.

Drawn Animation Research

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk8pAPv6TwQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u46eaeAfeqw
These two drawn animations are very similar to one another in the way that they are drawn and the ideas behind them. The one main difference is that one has the plot revolving round a particular character, a simple stick figure. Other than this, they are practically identical. One other similarity is that the stick figure animation has a coherent storyline as it is following him as he walks through town, whereas the other animation is seemingly random. This animation also includes colour.
The two animations involve shapes being 'pulled' and altered by the animators hand and being made into new objects or tweaked slightly. Other times these objects turn into something else entirely by morphing and twisting into a new shape. I think the plot behind these animations are unique and original and I would be interested in doing something similar. I think that both are entertaining and memorable for different reasons. The stick figure animation almost has a persona, and the animator encourages this by helping him in his every-day tasks and problems. The other animation is quirky and imaginative in the way that a creature or object can turn into something completely different in a straight forward but fluid motion. I think both of these animations would have required a lot of half work and planning, and both used a lot of photographs considering the length and how smooth the photographs run. I think these animations are good reference samples as this is almost exactly what I plan for my animation to be like, bar the animators input in changing the drawings.

3rd Draft- Flash Animation

This animation was created on Adobe Flash CS3 and the items were drawn using the same program.

I created this short video to experiment with different forms of animation. I hadn't used Flash a lot before so all the features were relatively new to me, so I kept the images and story as simple and short as possible. This also plays to my theme of idioms, as I chose "A Leopard Never Changes It's Spots" for the basis. The content is very blatant, which is a leopard walking through the jungle then it's spots changing colour then fading. I wasn't so much focused on the storyline as I was concentrating on the actual techniques and processes involved in using Flash, and the differences between it and other forms of animation.

2nd Draft- Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

This is my second attempt at a stop motion animation. I did stick to the idiom I chose and tried to follow the storyboard as much as possible, as this meant I had something to refer to and less things could go wrong. I am very pleased with the way the video came out, and I didn't have any problems when filming it. The one issue I did have was that the character was of a very young age and so perhaps wasn't as good at following instructions as a more mature person would have. However I needed a child to be in my film because if I had used an adult that had cried over milk, it would have given it a comedic effect which isn't what I intended. I think I used the right amount of frames between each movement and the filming was as smooth as I had wanted. However as I am now able to reflect on my work I th