Exam: Evaluation

For this final piece, my idea was creating a combination of both physical and occult/ symbolic representations of the elements. My piece is an animation starting from the stars and ending at the ocean. I wanted to create a piece that was personal to me, which is why I ended up basing the star part of the aquarius star sign. The animation starts with the appearing of the the aquarius constellation. This was to show the actual apparel of the constellation. To make this seem more powerful, and more importantly seem more personal to me, I added my favourite aquarius quote. The next part is a series of patterns and shapes each representing a different element in some form. The first shape represents air, as the rotation somewhat resembles a fan, or the spinning of a tornado. The second represents is intended to represent earth as it starts to crack, making it seem as if a earthquake had hit. This one also could be seen as being a river, forcing its way through. The third symbol doesn't represent an element, but rather links back to the idea of stars and the varied sizes they come in. The fourth symbol represents a previous research into 'The Burning Man Festival'. I looked into this a while back, its a festival where they make large wooden constructs and then proceeding to set them on fire until they become ash. This is where I thought the construct like shape I used linked to this, so I made use of this with fire in order to make it present more ideas of the physical side of the elements. The symbol after this represents water, and I tried to make it resemble a whirlpool. The ocean scene became the ending because I felt like if I kept adding more it would simply become too much and ruin the piece. I decided on finishing how the peace started, with an aquarius symbol at the end, I had the thoughts of trying to incorporate some of my alchemy research into the piece, but I realised a direct addition would not work, so I decided by looping back to aquarius, I could create the metaphor of infinity, the ideal behind the Ouroboros, alchemical symbol of infinity.

 I decided on creating an animation for my final piece. Animation would make it easier for me to control the environment in which the animation takes place. To make the animation I used Photoshop for the backgrounds and the more advanced shapes. From there I would use Flash to create the main animation, and then final alter it in Premier to gain better control over how long a scene takes, how long the delays are and the addition of sound into the film.

I first created my main Idea after learning about both the physical and the occult side of the elements. I originally wanted to create a film to present this idea of mine, however, in the end I was unable due to technical failure. The animation idea was the next best thing and I felt that this was the best way to present it after the film. The graphical style that I used was based partially off my own style of graphics that I've been developing across the year, however I also believe I encorperated some of the stylings of Saul Bass. This created an interesting style to the work, however I believe that maybe the two styles shouldn't have combined. As I went through the exam I made changes to the basic storybaord idea. I started adding additional quotes and increased my use of the shape tweens, due to time issues and not having enough time to work on manual 'tweens'.

I felt that the quotes were likely the most powerful part of my piece. Using serious or deep quotes alongside graphics doesn't always work I have found, so I believe that they worked well to an extent in my piece. If I had a chance to redo any of the animation, It would be making the quotes stay on screen longer, and remaking the tweens to be more effective than the shape tweens. I felt that I had to rush a lot of the animation due to the time restraints, so In the future I will take longer with the planning and prep work before the exams.

Exam: Day 2

To start the second day, I actually went over the Aquarius scene and started remaking part of the scene. The part I remade was the transition at the end of the aquarius scene. This time I had changed from a rather messy looking quickly made spin and shrink, and changed it  to make use of a shape tween. I had learnt from the previous animation during the mock that these could not just be thrown into the animation, I had to adjust the images accordingly. This tween created an interesting effect as the star trails first formed into three circle, and then they over-layed forming the moon. This overlaying really worked out well, and also gave me an idea for some the changes between the patterns on the moon.

Once I had finished making adjustments to the aquarius scene, I continued work on the moon scene. The first thing I did was design the various patterns that would appear on the Moons in photoshop. In the end I decided on making the following five.

 
 














From here I loaded them into flash, with the intention of making each pattern do something different from one another. The first one I used(Top Row left) I decided on making it rotate at a high speed.

It was at this point that I decided to again use shape tweens to create the transitions between the different patterns. Doing this I found that I was able to create several new shapes which really added to the idea of it being abstract. This however did mean I had to do some minor editing of the patterns in flash, which was somewhat time consuming.

For the next pattern(Top row Right) I decided on having the spikes of the pattern branch out across the moon. This almost looked as if it where a river being formed along the surface. I didn't intend for the river idea at first, however once I saw the connection, I decided on making it more prominent. I feel this scene is somewhat off the elements at times, so finding this connection was good. Alternatively, they could be seen as cracks on the surface, like an Earthquake had it. This gave me the idea of having earth, an element I hadn't originally planned on incorporating, into the piece.

The next pattern (Mid row left) I decided on having each spike become a circle. These circles all came out relatively well. I was questioning on whether to leave this part out of the piece because it wasn't the most relevant, however in the end I decided to keep it.

The next pattern was actually inspired by the idea of 'The Burning Man Festival'. The shape I used almost looks like some form of wooden construct. This then brought in the idea to edit and re-use the old fire from a prior experiment. I then used this to overlay the moon and create a burning effect. While the moon was mostly covered I changed the shape into a ball and let it be revealed as the fire went away.

The final transition I decided would be a simple one. I again started to make it rotate quickly, however at half way it changes and reverses the spin.

Now that the moon patterns where complete, all that remained for this scene was making the transition to the ocean scene. To do this I over-layed the large moon onto the ocean background, and then made it fade out, so that the ocean would be revealed.

For the ocean scene, I decided that rather than using more patterns, I made the decision to end the animation sooner, to do this I included another quote and made it fade in and out of the scene.

With both scenes now made, the next stage was to render them, and bring them into Adobe Premier to do the final editing.


Final Piece:

Exam: Day 1

For the first day the plan was to try to complete the starting star scene, and make progress on the moon scene.

To start with I took my gathered resources and starting work on the fade in stars showing the aquarius constellation. I did this using PhotoShop and made each star a separate image.

From the black dots I changed them to white, and then used the glow layer effect to make them resemble stars more.

The next stage was to import the .PNG stars into Flash. I found that I had issues with using flash for this. At first I found that the .PNGs would not allow the use of the Alpha control function, which would have allowed me to make the stars fade in, in order. I managed to solve this issue however by converting the .PNGs to symbols within Flash. This did however cost me some time.

Once I had set it so all the stars appear faded in order, I next needed to move on to the next step which was to make a line 'flow' through all the stars. I wanted this line to follows the same pattern/ order in which the stars initially appeared. For the lines I decided on wanting a wavy-ish line connecting them all. To accomplish this, I felt using the brush tool was the best way of making these lines as I had greater control over them.

Once I had connected the stars, I decided to re-use an old quote. This was the previously used quote to do with Aquarius, which I really liked. I made the text fade in after the lines had formed.

My next step, was to make the stars 'Shoot'. As previously mentioned this part was inspired by the effect created when a camera leaves the shutter open when taking pictures of the night sky.
To do this again used the Brush tool, to create movement trails to show that the stars are falling.

Although in still frame the lines don't look very good, when actually playing the movement overlays each other and creates an impact.

Now that this was done, all that remained to finish for the aquarius scene, would be the transition into the next scene. For this, I planned on having all the trails, forming together to create the moon.

From here I needed to work on the moon patterns 'Dancing' on the surface. I wanted to make these patterns resemble fire in a way, powerful, destructive, yet creative and shapeless. To do this I again turned to flash.

I started by making the moon, fade in a glow. To do this I used the moon from my prep work, placed it overlaying the moon and played with the alpha again. This created a really nice fade as I made the moon slightly bigger, it created a fading in ring around the original moon, which then became a full glow, making it seem like the creation of a new moon.

To start the patterns I decided on having two spike looking patterns circle the moon, colliding at opposite sides of the moon. I found this to be a good start as It got me thinking about how else I could control the patterns.

Day 2 To do List

- Finish Moon Scene(Inner Pattern - Transition to Ocean)
- Create Ocean Scene
- Add Sound (Audio file needs minor editing, found it prep folder)
- Add Titles (If theirs time)
- Evaluation (Priority)

Exam Preparation

In preparation for the upcoming exam. I began working on what I could before the exam. To start off I started creating backgrounds to use in the animation. The first scene was going to be known as 'The Aquarius Scene'. For this scene I needed a blank 'space' background. It would hold the various stars  of the aquarius constellation. This did not have to be detailed so after looking back over my previous piece to do with star signs, I decided to use features of it in my animation.

The background for the 'Aquarius Scene' was this:

The next scene in which the patterns would be "Dancing" on the moon would also require a blank background, so I decided on using the previous background again, however I also made a moon to position on the piece.

The next scene, would be the Ocean Scene. This scene required both the sky, moon and ocean in it, as well as a reflection of the moon on the water.

Also for preparation, I found the constellation of aquarius in a basic stick and dot form, which would allow for basic guidance and creation of the the Aquarius scene.

My next part of the preparation was finding the suitable sound to use for this piece. In the end I decided taking a section from a song called 'What I've Done' by Linkin Park. There music videos themselves nearly always find some way of linking to the elements, normally through earth and fire, so I felt using their song would be an interesting idea. I had taken the starting intro from the song. I took only the first 10 - 15 seconds so that I could edit it during the exam for better use within the piece.

Final Idea: StoryBoarding

As I found during the last mock, I needed more planning for my animations. Since I have again decided on an animation, I will start by taking my ideas and putting them into storyboard format.

I decided on continuing to add to the storyboard as when these are made they may not add up to be long enough for an animation. To alter this I decided on creating more scene ideas, and extending past ones in order to lengthen the animation, as well as giving myself the ability to add or remove scenes as I like.

Inspiration: Starry Nights

What really inspired me for a scene of the animation was after learning what you could do with a camera and stars. If someone takes a picture of the sky at night, when all the stars are out, and leaves the shutter open for a prolonged period of time, the camera will capture the image of the stars trails.

The results normally end with this being the result:

I found this effect to be really interesting. It captures the light as the star is moving, and creates this beautiful star pattern. This idea of manipulating the universes natural beauty really inspired me. In terms of elements this links in well to the idea of star signs as the constellations would also produce this kind of effect.

I wanted to experiment with my own version of this Shutter Stars, however unfortunately the nights since I have discovered this have been cloudy, with very few clearly visible stars.

Artist Research: Saul Bass

Name: Saul Bass

Occupation: Graphic Designer, Title Designer, Film Director

Born: 8th May 1920

Died: 25th April 1996

Nationality: American

Although Saul Bass wasn't technically an artist, he was however a Graphic Designer. He invented his own style of graphics, which where normally made of sharp-edged basic shapes. They mainly just make use of two colours and don't often feature any extra colours. It was Saul Bass who designed and created the opening sequences for several of Alfred Hitchcock's films, Including: Psycho, North by Northwest, and a few others.

This is the in colour version of the Psycho, it was coloured in the styling of Saul Bass and still made use of all the original animation. The opening title itself isn't complex at all, however it still seems to work really well with the music used. 

I thought that this would be a good inspiration for my animation as I could take some of the ideas from Saul Bass's style and add it to my own to create my animation.