Reflection on Practice :Abstract

How to understand and control loop of rhythm in   short   animal animation

Nowadays, action design plays a significant role in the whole of animation. Of course, the developments of story, the character and scene design or emotional expression are also the important factors in animation.

In the Disney animation “Tangled”, the action of the horse is  really  vivid- the  audience  has empathy the horse because of its  actions  and  facial expression. Inspired by this animation, I decided to make a short animation about an animal in my project.

Although the action is a complicated area in animation, it also includes some different elements, such as the rhythm. But the actions of animals are different from the actions of people, especially the loop of rhythm, like jumping, running. If the rhythm can’t be controlled well, the animal would look strange through the whole story.

In order to make sure the animated animal moves in a natural way, we need to analyze the difference between the actions of animal and the actions of people.

My research questions for this project are:

·      How can I understand the rhythm of the action?

·      How can I control the loop of a repeated action (like running)?

·      How can I use the colour contrast better to show the animal standing out from background?

·      How can I combine rhythm, loop and colour to produce an overall natural effect?

 Therefore, I must have the rhythm respect to do a deeper research in animation. Through analyzing the characteristics and functions of rhythm and color expression in some outstanding animations, I hope to be able to answer my research questions in the future.

Reflecting on project ---The color test in short animation

                                 

Reflecting on project

             ---The color test in short animation

   In my project, my aim was to understand and control the rhythm loop in short animation .in last semester, I have created the story of my project, it is about a rabbit, the story just like a comedy. I always want to create the rabbit not to be a real rabbit; it likes a child, which always have the mood.  And from this semester, I also want to make the project more deeply. 

  One day, in this module, I watched an animation called “ the lighthouse keeper”, this is my first time to see this short animation, although this animation is short, but it gave me some education feelings, the story is about the lighthouse keeper and insect. The keeper always focus on fighting the insect, ignoring his real own work, he broke the light, and finally the insect use its body to protect the keeper. According to the animation, the use of color and camera are really good, there has the strong color contract with the characters and scenes-- gold and black, it made the audience to focus on the characters, not just the scenes.

    It gave me some feeling to consider the effects of color change. How to make the audience focus on the rabbit ;how to make them  not to notice the big scenes. after thinking about these, I continued developing the ideas in my head, and realized that maybe I should do some test to my project in color  area.

At the beginning of test, my ideas for changing and modifying were not successful. Because I just thought that which color is more suitable to the rabbit and building ,I just change the color ,made them to yellow ,blue⋯⋯I ignored the factors about the combination of the texture ,lighting and color.  

    Taking all these factors into account, I thought I could create better ideas if I explored them more, so I should rendering some pictures for the change of the test, in order to make the whole picture looks comfortable and harmonious.  After taking a long time to find some booking which talking about the knowledge of color. From the books ,I understood more about the color  in different areas. For example, the knowledge for consistency of color, the different  influence on different  color—the warm effect produced by using red or yellow color; the cold effect produced by using blue or black color. When I used these knowledge for my own project, it changed clearer than before. I knew what I wanted.

    In the process of test, firstly, I change color and texture(like smooth ,rough) in 3D software ;secondly ,change the gradation of color; finally ,the complementarity of the color use is also another important factor in my test.

    Overall, from relation in my project, I feel I should have explored more test in some areas. This would have given me some inspiration for the ideas to the whole project in the future. I need to do more research for project . From this test I learnt that I need to think about thing s more deeply before I continued  doing work. If I do it before thinking ,it will be a big problem after finished the whole thing . And  the reflecting  on my project  will give me some suggestions on good and bad sides. It actually improve myself   for the next stage of my project.

 

Reflection on Practice:PRESTO

  This animation is called PRESTO,and it is produced  in 2008 by pixel.

  It's about a magician and a rabbit , it is same as other animation of Pixel ,this short animation is also have a funny story.With the fighting between the rabbit and the magician ,there is a happy ending with this story.

 At the beginning of the photo, the megician is filled with the whole photo ,the photo don't have the place to have the rabbit.And when the magician doing magic shows, the hungry rabbit  is placed in a dark image to do behind- the-scenes work, it let me thinking about that  the animation  partially inspired by the reality of Hollywood behind-the-scenes personnel situation.

 in this animation the audience saw a series of funny and out of the adventure comedy magic show, just like Chaplin to give the funny feeling.

in the design of this animation ,it has the  art style based on  last century,its tones is has nostalgia sense, the warm of light  in the animation to bring the audiece back to the last century, other as old sound style,  and titles poster, are quite have the retro meaning.

  and this 3d animation ,in the design of the rabbit ,the model is very simple ,but the teeth of the rabbit to make the audience have the attention to the rabbit,and also the color to make me feeling good with the character and scence. there is a little color contract with the character and background ,the character and the main props is brighter than the background ,this is made the audience to know how to see the animation better.

  

Reflection on Practice :The Lighthouse Keeper

  Today, I  had a introduction class with Sharon, She introduced the module in this  semester，we saw an animation called the lighthouse keeper .

              

       

This is my first time to see this short animation ,althoughthis animation is short ,but it is give me some education feeling ,the story is about the lighthouse keeper and insect，the lonely keeper's own work is to protect the lighthouse ,and the insect want to go into the house ,so the keeper fighting with the insect  ,and he always focus on fighting ,ignoring the his really own work ,he broke the light ,and when an ship will  hit the keeper ,finally the insect use its body to protect the keeper.

 and according to the animation ,the use of color and camera  is really good ,there has the strong color contract with the characters and scene，gold and black ,to make the audience to focus on the characters ,not just the scenes. it give me some feeling to think about my project of the color design in background.