Colour Theory Lecture 2

We were warned that if we did not attend the first lecture on Colour Theory that we would be slightly lost when it came to the second. That was definitely the case, in this lecture we learnt about complimentary colours and which colours work together as well as which most definitely do not.

This lecture was very interesting because it changed my perceptions on what colours I feel compliment and work well together. The colours I thought were supposed to work together were revealed to me that this is not always the case. We were shown some colours together that became very hard to watch on the eyes, this was interesting to me because I found out how important it is to use the right colours together.

What we learnt in this lecture can be applied to the animations we create because we now know slightly more how to stay away from colours that together can hurt the eye.

Colour Theory Lecture 1

This lecture was all about how we perceive colour and how colour is created. It all comes down to the simple question; what colour s the sky? Before the lecture I would admittedly answer that question with 'blue' but in actuality, the sky isn't blue. In fact it was explained that in a way we are in fact being lied to about all the colours we see. Our brains perceive colour by light bouncing off an object and going into our eyes, then when it hits the eye a rainbow is formed. This is hard to describe, but reminds me of the album cover for Dark Side of the Moon.



I found this lecture interesting because it asked the question of does colour really exist? If in pitch blackness, when we touch an object we can't see the colour, does it really exist at all or are we being lied to?

Visual Language: Form, Flow and Force The Thief and the Cobbler

The Thief and the Cobbler is the unfinished masterpiece by legendary animator Richard Williams. Taking more than thirty years to develop it was in the Guiness Book of World Records for having the longest production of any film. Unfortunately it was never finished and due to budget and time issues the film was eventually taken away from Williams and re-touched to be entirely different. This new version is only available on DVD in Australia.








Unfortunately it is fairly easy to see why the film was never completed. It is visually stunning and the fact that it was entirely created with hand-drawn animation is in itself a staggering achievement. The characters look so 3D to me because of how smooth the 3D is. No one is ever just stood still in a static position, everyone is always moving about. This movie contains excellent examples of form, force and flow because the characters look incredibly lifelike and their movements are incredibly fluid for something that begun production so many years ago.

Sketchbooks

Aside from our briefs we are set, many of us do our own personal work in our spare time. For example, outside of university I do gag cartoons for a newspaper called The Weekly News. When ever I want to submit cartoons to the newspaper I would usually draw about four and send off four at a time, then the newspaper would often pick one out of the four.

I really enjoy doing these drawings because even though the gags are tailored more to the over 60's and sometimes it's very difficult to come up with a gag. But they provide the perfect opportunity to have unlimited creative freedom and I can also improve on various aspects of drawing, such as drawing from life with drawing many different characters.

The above images are part of a storyboard I did for a friend who's a writer. The storyboard was for an independent film that will hopefully one day be released. I really enjoyed wprking on this storyboard. Although it was at times very difficult and time consuming, it was also a great experience in how to create a story board, but, had I the opportunity to do the whole thing again I would make the individual images less complicated.

The above images are caricatures I drew to be developed into caricatures, so they basically are caricatures in the early stages. So I would draw a quick sketch in my sketchbook. Sometimes I would have to draw multiple sketches to get the caricature right. But then when I had drawn a sketch I feel like works as in the basic caricature is there, it just needs to be slightly altered, that's when computers come in.

Visual Language Take 5 Part 5

For this sound animation the noise reminded me of when you see static on a television or when you're getting a bad reception on a radio. That is why I created something that is kind of similar to static on a television but also visually looks quite extra-terrestrial almost like an alien race is trying to contact Earth. Looking back on this animation I feel it was quite successful but as with some previous animations I have created, I wish I had incorporated more actual animation in to make it more visually interesting.

Below is my final Sound animation...

Visual Language: Take 5 Part Four

This animation I created was I feel the weakest of the ones I had created. Admittedly I had not given it the amount of time it deserved to create. This is because the animation I created before hand was my strobe light animation which had taken hours to complete. Plus looking back now I did not take into account that I used more than the desired amount of colours in the animation which I did not take into account upon development. Furthermore, if I were to go back and re-create this animation I would have also incorporated more actual animation as the animation as it is is very basic.

Below is my final Sound animation.

Visual Language: Set, Series, Sequence 12 Images

The final part of this brief was to develop a sequence of twelve images that tell a short narrative that includes the image in our eight images task. I enjoyed this task a lot more than the previous task, this is because it allowed me the opportunity to work with character and story, something of which I believe my skills are more tailored to. Below is my sequence of twelve images...

Basically if you didn't understand, the story I came up with is about a balloon going through an existential crisis. It doesn't know where it belongs in the world. It looks around and all the other balloons have other purposes. Some balloons are filled with helium and entertain younger kids by floating around in mid. Other balloons have the purpose of getting teenagers high on laughing gas. But this balloon was born with only air in him. Suddenly, he's grabbed from the floor and untied. He then whooshes around the room making a loud humorous noise. Everyone, kids and adults alike look away from their balloons and share in the few seconds of joy they get from watching this crazy little thing zoom around above them. The balloon is ecstatic with excitement, he's gone from no one caring about him, to everyone loving him. But his air eventually runs out and he glides to the floor, his life purpose has been for-filled.

I felt this task was rather successful and the feedback I received was largely positive. I also feel that working with different materials helped to bring the sequence to life whereas I feel it would have appeared far flatter had it just been done with fine-line pen. Below is the feedback I received for my twelve images...

Visual Language Evaluation

Overall I have really enjoyed Visual Language as a module and have found each of the briefs in their own right useful and I have been able to apply the practices I have learnt to my own personal studies. Firstly, the Set, Series, Sequence brief that we were first set was, I believe and still do believe the hardest we were set. It was the main task we were given where we had to use our imagination and apply experimentation. I felt the reason I found this task so difficult is because my brain does not work in a way that I can come up with many random ideas in a short space of time. I like to find an idea I like and then spend loads of time developing that particular idea in massive depth. Plus another thing I struggle with is using a wide range of different media and techniques for experimentation; this is also why I struggled with the Take 5 brief.

The next brief we were assigned, Environmental Storytelling was I feel far easier but just as useful for me with my own personal practice. This allowed us the opportunity to do something I really should do more of in my own time, draw from life. Had I the opportunity to do this brief again I would find more interesting spaces for my ‘places I have never been before’. As it was a good opportunity for me to develop my skills I feel it would have been more rewarding to pick a place more visually interesting.

Take 5 was a challenge, as with Set, Series, Sequence, I found it very difficult to not go with the obvious solutions to how to visually represent the sounds I heard. In the end the animations I created were not all successful, some were definitely more successful than others.

Overall I enjoyed the You Spin Me Right Round brief but I did not take to it immediately. I actually found this brief deceivingly complicated to do. I feel this was down to me picking a poor object to animate a turnaround with, why was it poor, simply because it was just too complicated to draw a turnaround with. I had the choice of leaving this brief alone with an animation I was unsatisfied with, or I could spend a day re-doing it with a different object but dedicating more time to perfecting it. In the end I chose the latter and found the brief far more successful in doing so.

The final brief we had was Form, Flow, Force which I found very useful and rewarding despite it being condensed into a very short amount of time. I had never collaborated with anyone on the course before too much of an extent but now we were suddenly working in groups. Our group worked very well together and because we were all working with each other I feel it motivated us to work harder on our drawings.

In conclusion, Visual Language has been a very rewarding module and the skills I have learnt can be applied to any aspect of animation.

Visual Language: Set, Series, Sequence Series of 8 Images

Moving on from the 32 drawings we had to produce, we then had to choose the most successful drawing we had created and then produce a series of eight images that explore this chosen image in a range of different ways. I feel this task was very beneficial to me because one of the key criticisms I was given was about my lack of experimentation with my first 32 images. They were basically all drawn in fine-line pen and hardly any different materials were used. This task forced me out of my comfort zone to use new materials I wouldn't normally think to go near. Below are my eight images...

I chose to experiment with my balloon image because I felt that although the drawing is very simple, this would allow me to spend more time working with materials than making the drawing look like what it was intended to be. Had I another chance to go back and do this task again I would have probably been inclined to draw a different image eight times, this is because the simplicity of the image meant drawing repeated drawings became rather dull after a certain amount of time. Even though I was happy with the resulted images and thought they were more successful than my 32 drawn images.

Visual Language: Set, Series, Sequence

This was the very first brief we were set as part of Visual Language. The brief stated that we had to pick from a range of words, and then we would produce 32 drawings that are linked to that word. For example, I chose the word flight so I then had to draw 32 drawings that are linked to that word such as a drawing of Superman. Below are the drawings I produced...

I found this task very difficult, I feel this might be down to technique. To me, my brain doesn't work in a way similar to some of my peers where an endless amount of creativity can be given from something quite vague, and that is what we had to do. Others seemed to fit the project because the way they work is incredibly creative and they love briefs where they are given a huge amount of freedom to create anything. Whereas, when I'm working on a project like this, maybe down to lack of imagination/intelligence, I can't think that wide open. So my drawings ended up as the more obvious choices; for example, when I chose the word flight, I drew drawings of planes and Superman. Whereas I would look at the work my peers were creating and they'd pick the word plant for example and draw something like a nuclear power-plant.

These kinds of briefs are the ones I really struggle with because they encourage you to think of loads of ideas very quickly. That is why I do not get on with the initial idea part of a project where things like mind maps come into play, because the way my brain works is I spend a while thinking of an idea I like and then massively develop that idea, I rarely like to create many initial ideas, basically because I can't think of any.