Visual Journey

For our final project, we had to animate an abstract animation to a piece of music of our choosing. It couldn't have any lyrics because we would only animate the sound. I chose to animate to 'Atlantis' by Two steps from hell. I think the piece turned out quite well, and the timing is spot on. However, I could try using more effects on it next time, such as fades on the circles.  

This is the final version. Overall I think I did a good job on the timing and the shapes. 

This is an alternate version of the final. The black background was accidental, however I really like how it made the color stand out. 

Flash: Musical experiments

For this exercise, we had to create some simple animations based on music. We listened to two different tracks and created animations based on each. 

Experiment 1, based on Satyajit Ray from the Darjeeling Limited soundtrack.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6pHzQtwunw&index=9&list=PL10C755BF662DD475

Experiment 2, based on Different trains by Steve Reich 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E4Bjt_zVJc

Flash exercise 5: Tastes

Next we had to create 3 animations that would show an abstract response to a different taste. I think I may have over-complicated some of them a bit, as simple shapes would have been far better than repeated linework. 

Spicy

Sweet

Sour 

Flash Exercise 4: More tweens

I experimented with tweens again for this one. I created two balls bouncing around 

Used a classic tween to animate this one. 

Did another one, this time with a motion tween, so it would bounce across the screen. 

Flash exercise 3

We then had to take our bouncing character from previously, and make it bounce across the screen. We did this by making a tween, which allows to repeat an animation at least once or twice. I animated my character bouncing across the screen. While I think it is ok, it looks as though the animation is being dragged across the screen, and it freezes briefly when the ball hits the ceiling.     

Flash exercise 2: bouncing ball

                           

                             We next had to animate a ball bouncing up and down on the floor. I think it                falls down too quickly

Next we had to add a second ball to the original and animate the two bouncing together. Next time I should add more in betweens for where the ball hits the ceiling. 

Finally, we had to add arms to it, and create a character bouncing up and down. Next time I need to add more frames to the ending. 

Flash exercise 1: line

As part of this unit, we also had to learn how to use Adobe Flash, a 2D animation software. Our first task was to animate a line displaying an emotion of our choice, I decided to show it in a very sleepy state, constantly dropping and getting back up before dropping off completely. I think the line could be a little slower, and more consistent, but aside from that I think it turned out alright. 

Musical journey: concepts

As part of our final project 'Visual Journey', I also had to create a lot of concept work either by hand or digitally. These paintings convey the type of colors and shapes that I will use in my final animation. 

Music response 2

In the next session, I had to swap music with someone else and then create a response, so we could compare and contrast everyone's different take on a piece of music.I swapped with Warren for this session, so I listened to the opening theme from Final Fantasy VII. I got a very space opera feel from this one, so I ended up illustrating a storyboard-like piece, featuring two starships orbiting a peaceful planet, before getting blown apart by two enemy ships. The music starts off very calm before taking a sinister turn. 

Once again, I need to be more abstract with these, and stop trying to make a story out of music, a habit I unfortunately still keep. I am however very happy with the way the colors turned out, they reflect each moment rather well. 

click this link for the music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8NGDsnv34M

1

2

3

Music response

 In what I considered a very enjoyable session, we had to bring a piece of music (of our choice, so long it had no lyrics), and then paint a response. I decided to listen to 'He who rules the night' by Two steps from hell, a song that made me think of rather dark and evil things, such as dark dragons and zombies. Although I personally do like this piece, particularly the glowing red near the dragon's mouth, it is possible I went a little too literal with this, and next time try and be more abstract. The zombie hand is also a tad distracting because of the bright colour on it. 

Click on this link to listen to the original song 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxNwZ0_xvP8

 I did a second response as well to continue from the original and create a storyboard. This one should actually be finished next time, although the colors are more suitable in terms of hue. It should be noted this takes place before the first image. 

Music notes

For our final few weeks, we were going to be focusing on creating animation work based purely on musical rhythm. To begin with, we listened to different pieces of music and took notes on what words first came to mind. We could also do drawings and marks to better visualize them. A lot of the actual music was completely different to how I visualized it in terms of origins and context.  

Photo taste paintings

We had to walk along the Portsmouth seafront and take photos of the area. We then had to alter its mood through color. This time they had to be based on different tastes. I once again used Photoshop for this.   

                                           

Salty

Sour

Sweet 

Window painting

 Next, we had to select a view outside a window to paint, taking into account the sky, lighting etc. This was a bit tricky considering how much the weather changed that day. 

Once, again, I had to alter the mood of the piece. I chose to base it on the word 'sickly', using very pale colors 

Still life painting 2

We had  a second session of still life painting. Once again, I believe I used a warmer palette here, although I think some of the areas surrounding the bag and flower came out quite cool.   

These are palettes that I used.  

Still life painting 1: The moods.

After finishing the first painting, I had to alter it so it conveyed different moods. I did these digitally on PhotoShop. 

Delicious

Calm

Evil

Frantic 

Still life painting 1

For the next part of this unit, we had to paint from still life using the paints. We had to keep in mind the temperatures of the colors whilst we did this. From the look of this piece, you can get a very warm feel from it. 

color mixing, Neutral colours

This is my neutral palette. I did this by combining two of the same colours, but with different temperatures to get a mixed hue.  

These are some of the palettes I kept from the exercises. 

Color mixing: warm colors

These are the warm colors. Definitely you can see the contrast between the cool palette and the warm, particularly with the browns. It reminds me of a desert or mountain scene in a hot sunny day. The red, yellow and orange also looks quite fiery here.   

Color mixing, Cool colours

When we returned after the Christmas break, we looked at experimenting with and using color to convey feeling and depth to our. We started off by creating palettes of different temperatures; warm, cool, and neutral. 

This is my cool colour palette. I think that you would probably use these kind of colours to create a more negative scene. The browns in particular look quite grimy and dirty. The green as well looks like it would be from a swamp.  

Narrative final report

For this unit, we had to create an animatic storyboard that would tell a cohesive and flowing story. I worked with Marwan and Xenia on this. We began by coming up with the story and drawing the sequences together, but we later split off and focused on our own scenes as well, which served to save time.

I did the 2^nd scene with the memory, and the 4^th scene where the shark saves his son. I should point out many of the original drawings for these sequences were done by my group mates initially as well, but I then scanned them into Photoshop and traced them before editing together in Premier. Some of my drawings were also used in one of Xenia's sequences. I also worked with Marwan on the 4^th sequence and he drew and traced some of the frames as well, which can be found on his DVD and blog. 

Overall I think this project turned out alright, but we could certainly have improved. A lot of the final drawings look a little inconsistent due to separate editing, and the final scenes could have been outlined. My scenes as well could look better, because one is completely outlined and the other is only half outlined, which creates a little bit of consistency. I could have edited them a little better as well, perhaps with more transitions. As a team we probably could have worked a little better and quicker as well, as the frames took so long to draw and edit that we ended up falling behind a bit. Ultimately though I think we pulled through.  

Narrative, final Animatic

         
                                This is the final Animatic for our group project for Narrative

Narrative Animatic, my scenes

                                                                           Scene 1
                   
              These are the scenes I worked on individually for the narrative storyboard.   

                                                                         Scene 2 

             My group mate did several of the frames for this scene, you can find them here. on                his blog http://marwanmali.blogspot.co.uk/ 

I should point out that my group-mates did some of the drawings in both the first and the second scene as well. However I traced over them in Photoshop and edited them together in premier. 

Narrative Scans from the other sequences

These scans were also drawn by me, which were a part from my group mate's sequence.The video can be found here(http://xeniagalchin.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/storyboard-individual-work.html)