THE RIVER:

The River was quite simple to animate as I cut out the original river out so it looked like this:



I then went on to take an other layer on Photoshop with a copy of the cut out river:



I then went on to After Effects where I changed the positioning of the above river under the background layer and added the keys, resulting in a flowing river.

                      FINAL FIGURE DESIGN

The aim is to animate the figure shown below, walking over the bridge.

However due to the curve of the path before the bridge, in order to make the walk of the figure look believable I will need to draw different angles of the figure.

The figure will start off entering from the right side by the green tree at the smallest scale.








       Above is the first figure I will use as it will be coming in from the right hand side, therefore the figure will be seen showing the left side of its body.



                                                               
The figure will then change direction therefore I will change the format of the body to its right hand side.
Coming over the bridge the figures position changes again, and so I will go back to using the first figure showing the left side of its body.

(While the changing of the position of the figure proceeds, there will also be a gradual increase in scale of the body).

                                                                                       This last drawing will be the last figure I use in the animation for when it walks away after crossing the bridge. The path after the bridge is straight forward therefore the figure is drawn from its front profile.

HOW I CREATED THE FINAL FIGURE:

After looking at different illustrations of the Grim Reaper I then went on to create my own.

Due to the background for my final piece being almost an abstract painting, I though creating a detailed angel of death would not suit. And so I decided to create a very simple dark gown with an unsettled edge. In order to do so, I used a black spray tool for the bottom of the gown and then went over it with a glow rubber, giving it the smokey hovering effect. I am happy with my final character as I believe it suits the background, however in order to improve, next time I would create a more detailed background and character. 

HOW WILL I ANIMATE IT:

Now that my character has been created on Photoshop, the next step is to animate it, which I will do on After Effects. Luckily as my character is wearing a gown, there will be no need to create a physical movement for its body, my only intention is getting it to hover over the bridge, therefore my main focus will be on positioning. Also due to using different figures for different positions I will need to concentrate on opacity in order to fade the figure out, and then use the new figure at a different position to face in. I will also need to focus on scaling. 

FINAL TOUCHES:

Once I complete all of the above, the next step is lighting. 

The main idea is that this figure comes and walks along the bridge followed by darkness. And so I hope to change the light settings getting darker and darker throughout the animation starting from the far right hand side where the dark figure enters. As the figure walks along the darkness follows.

NEXT STEP:

(Thomas Kinkade's 'Garden Painting')

Before going ahead with my own drawings, I wanted to try out my main idea on Thomas Kinkade's painting. And so I opened up 'Paint X Lite' and uploaded the painting.
I then went on to go over the painting with a few brush effects. First was 'Brush' which was a thick block colour texture in pink on the blossom trees. I then changed the brush to 'Coarse Bulk 3' which was a softer brush with a smudge effect. The result is shown above ^^
I then went on to use 'Coarse Bulk 2' on the rest of the painting which resulted in an abstract looking painting.





















Here is the outcome to using brush effects over Kinkade's painting. As you can see by the gates in the back of the painting, I have added a tall black figure using the 'Coarse Bulk 3' brush in black.


here is the painting again, however I have applied more of the brush in black to create a spreading effect.













This time I have made the black figure look as if it is getting closer as well as continuing to spread in the background





The figure gets closer and closer as if it's walking along the path, and the background gets darker and darker.











And then here is the transition, where the background is in complete darkness, and the black figure has take all of the colour and beauty.

 And then the figure slowly fades away.





And so next I decided to put all of these images together in a video to get an idea of movement and template for my final piece.

Here is the result:

Thomas Kinkade's 'Garden Painting'

Here is one of Thomas Kinkade's beautiful oil paintings under the category 'Garden Painting', where he shares more of his alluring art work of gardens. This has to be one of my favourites due to the contrast of pastel colours with the darker shades beneath. I also like the light sensation presented, sharing a calm and relaxed sentiment. This painting presents my ideal garden in which I hope to create something very similar for my final piece. The blossom trees, and pathway to the gate is the image that has stuck with me, and so with the inspiration from this painting I hope to interpret it in my own way but give off the same feeling as Kinkade does with this graceful painting.

Structure and Planning for the Final Piece 

Idea:
A dark looking figure, wearing a long black gown, walking through a beautiful garden filled with flowers, and as this figure walks through everything beautiful in the garden attaches to the gown and the garden is left dark and abandoned. 

First step: 
- Reference for the first image, being the beautiful garden
- sampling with different drawings of beautiful gardens
- putting the final drawing together

Second Step:
- Reference for the second image, being the dark, abandoned garden
- Sampling with different drawings of dark gardens
- putting the final drawing together

Third Step:
Transfer -
Once I have my beautiful garden and dark garden, I will then sample with transparency to get an idea of the final video through image.
I will then go to looking at fitting in the dark figure and how I am going to move the beauty from the garden onto the dark figures gown.

Final Step:
Putting the video together.

Planning for the Final Piece 

Ideas:
After looking at the illustrative art of Brother Grimm's Fairy Tales, not only did the many pieces of art inspire me, it also encouraged me to take more of a modern approach to my final piece.

One of my favourite child's tales would have to be Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin. And so I went further to take a look at the illustrations online.

All in all, this is a very dark story. At first we are presented with a Hero who is promised fifty thousand florins by the Mayor to play his music to the many rats in the town, who will then follow him and not come back. However when he does not receive the money promised by the Mayor the Piper then plays his music to the children who he takes from the town and are never to be seen again.

Presented in this story is heroism, victory, betrayal, and horror. And what I like most about it, is how he has the power to attract any living creature and control them. And so this idea of a powerful person has inspired me to take a similar approach for my final piece.

This then gave me the idea of taking something beautiful and making it ugly.

That then made me think about  'Firebird Suite, Fantasia 2000':

This is such a lovely, naturalistic animation. What I like most is this idea of spring being personified into a beautiful girl who comes along and changes winter into spring. And so here we have the idea of changing something dark into something beautiful, which is exactly what I am aiming for but the other way around.

                   
                               Coraline

When it comes to the darker side of animation Coraline is one of my favourites. With it being directed by Henry Selick, director of Nightmare Before Christmas, there is definitely that same influence. What I enjoy most about this film is the combination of the magical and disturbing overview. Not only is it a very clever direction and a different approach to animation, I think the story is fascinating and I enjoyed ever minute of it. I am very keen on following this type of style for my final piece. I do believe that taking a more disturbing approach to animation (still at a PG standard) makes it more intriguing to watch. At the same time I do believe following a darker genre would be more difficult because to make a thriller work, it needs an excellent story, and with my final piece only lasting a few seconds, I need something short and sweet.

                           Spirited Away

When it comes to the work of Studio Ghibli there is no comparison. Not only are their anime feature films incredibly touching, the art is also unbelievable. Spirited Away was the first film to make me realise how amazing animation is.  Not only does the storyline go beyond a traditional start, middle, finish, as a viewer you also gain an attachment to the characters and really empathise with them. Myself, I would never try and follow the art of Manga, I believe it is popular due to a reason, that being the creators being the most incredible artists and animators in the world and I could not and would not want to interpret it, however I will always enjoy to watch it. 

                           Illustrations  

                                 'Alice in Wonderland'

Today we looked at illustrative art of Brothers Grimm's Tales. Above is an Alice in Wonderland illustration which I thought was very effective. From what has started off as a fascinating fairy tale can be interpreted in so many ways, and it is very interesting to view the many different opinions and views. Alice in Wonderland is one of my all time favourites. In terms of compositing it can be argued that there is a great variety of elements and images. There are so many parts to this story that make it a whole, for example the many characters and settings. This illustration has inspired me to go for something more artistic and quirky for my final piece. 

                           'Rhapsody in Blue' Fantasia 2000

In terms of compositing,  my opinion is that Fantasia 2000 is one of the most incredible and very effective films on the planet. Not only is the music amazing but each animation created for the music is fascinating and inspiring. My favourite being "Rhapsody in Blue'. The animation created for this powerful composition gives out one significant message amongst the lives of completely different people.
The story of this animation is based in New York in the 30's, presenting the life of four different people dreaming for a better life. The end of the animation presents the achievement of their dreams, inspiring us viewers to never give up.

Animating on After Effects 

Today we had the opportunity to try out animating on After Effects. The above photo shows the mannequin in which I animated. At the bottom left of the photo shows all of the layers needed in order to create movement. Once each feature of the mannequins body has been detached and made into a new layer on photoshop, and then opened up in After Effects the next step is to then parent each feature to its neighbour. The next step was to then rotate a body part from the pivot point and add new key frames. I chose to move the left leg back and forth to create a dancing movement.

I learnt a lot from this lesson, and really enjoyed bringing life to a plain image. I hope to learn more from After Effects and create something a lot more effective and fascinating to watch.

What is compositing? 

In the process of grasping the idea of compositing, we were introduced to After Effects. Above is an example of what we did in this session. First of all we were to think of two completely random words, where I came up with 'paper' and 'zoo'. The next step was to then type both words into youtube. For 'paper' the trailer to the film 'Paper Towns' came up, and for 'zoo' the trailer for the film 'Zoo' came up. The next step then was to open up After Effects were we opened both files for both videos where they then emerged into one video. We also sampled with brightness and transparency creating an effective looking video. 

The idea of this task was to understand the meaning of compositing, which is to create something e.g a video, or photo where it includes a variety of items and elements, this idea of layers and layers, to create an effective and protruding piece of art.

 composite

ˈkɒmpəzɪt/

verb

gerund or present participle: compositing

1. combine (two or more images) to make a single picture.

   "photographic compositing by computer"

PHOTOSHOP

Introduction to compositing:

To start off with the introduction to compositing we tested out photoshop by choosing an animal and a background. Here is my photo of a panda at a christmas market. This was my fist time using photoshop and I was very impressed with the outcome.

Step 1: Find the photos
Step 2: Cutting the background from the panda with the magic tool.
Step 3: Inverse the photo.
Step 4: On a new layer open the new chosen background.
Step 5: Copy and Paste the inverted photo to the new background.

LILY ALLEN ‘SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW’

Lily Allen ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ Music Video Link

Here is a picture of the Bear and Hare in Lily Allen’s music video for the John Lewis 2013 Christmas advert; ‘Somewhere Only We Know’. This music video is one of my absolute favourites not only due to the storyline, but for the demonstration of how the advert was created. The music video presents the hard work that takes place in creating an animation, it also inspired me to become an animator myself.