Project report

Responsive: Evaluation

I have found the Responsive module as a whole to be one of the most challenging of any modules we have undertaken in the past. The reason for this is not really because of the briefs themselves, but the sheer quantity of briefs needed. Also the briefs I've done for the module are all pretty different to each other. Loop De Loop was simple because I knew exactly what kind of animation I wanted to make and how I wanted to animate it, that being traditionally. But in the collaborative brief, things like idea generation and thinking about how to go about an outcome for a brief is far more complicated. The reason for this is because there were two brains at play with slightly different ideas.

The collaborative brief is the one I struggled with the most. I have absolutely zero complaints about working with Laura though. I feel she was an excellent partner because all the while through the development process of the project she was deeply understanding about how time consuming the animation process is, particularly how time consuming the animation process is for me as I'm a slow animator anyway. So I am very glad we worked together because with anyone else the experience might have been a lot more pressurising. I think we can both agree we found this brief to be more challenging than others because of the process of working collaboratively itself. If a brief is individual you can work on it any time you want to, but in a collaboration you have to set aside time that you can both meet up and work on it together.

Furthermore, we originally felt that being housemates would be beneficial to our work process because we would never need to arrange in advance to meet up as we would usually just be in separate rooms in the same building. But this did mean we never really scheduled specific times in advance to work on the project, whenever we decided to work on it it would be a lot more spontaneous and mostly be on the day. With other individual briefs we needed to do and other modules we needed to do, the collaborative brief would and did get left too code to deadline and it did effect us down the line.

I was really happy with how all the final outcomes for all the briefs. Of course I wish we had designated ourselves more time to work on the collaborative brief but I simply did not plan how long the animation process would take to do. Had I chance to do this again and work with the same person I think we would both agree that we would not use the excuse of living in the same building to not produce an effective work schedule and let the vast quantity of the work get left until we were pushed for time.

I have found the module quite intense but I have found it veery beneficial to work with different techniques and processes to go about answering briefs that are all entirely different to each other in a short space of time.

Responsive: The Weekly News

The Weekly News is a newspaper that has a readership of around fifty thousand and they also accept contributions for gag cartoons. These contributions can come from anyone and how it works is that I would email the editor with around four every week and they would choose which one to accept, sometimes they accept one, sometimes none. I have been doing these gag cartoons for years but it has been only recently that doing these cartoons have benefited my skills in animation. Before I would treat it as a job, admittedly a job I really enjoyed doing, but a job nonetheless. Recently I have used it to develop my drawing skills as every cartoon is different, there is always a different situation and it always involves different characters.

In fact it has helped me develop my skills in drawing from reference.

For example, with the above gag cartoon I needed to find many different images to reference…

Sometimes to me it doesn't even matter if it isn't essential to get reference as it may not benefit the gag. It's more of an excuse to draw a wide variety of things and people. So with the secondary character in the image, I didn't need to find reference for him, I could have just drawn a random guy, but for me this would not develop my drawing skills so I felt I would anyway.

Here are the rest of the recent Weekly News cartoons I've created recently for Responsive...

Responsive Collaborative: Time Keeping Issues

Unfortunately we missed the actual YCN deadline for the MSC brief. This was mainly down to our time keeping skills. At the start of the project we both felt like since Laura and I were housemates that this would benefit us down the line. Since she would always be in like the next room, we would never really have to arrange meetings or have any problems with contact. But we ended up being too relaxed about scheduling time to work on the brief and ended up finding ourselves pushed for time. Furthermore we found that due to scheduling conflicts we often wouldn't end up seeing each other till the very end of the day, so like 9pm when we have already both worked a full day on separate briefs so were too tired to think about this collaborative brief. I also underestimated how much time it would take to produce the traditional hand drawn animation part of the video. Obviously in the past two years I have gotten a lot quicker at animating traditionally as it is the technique I most enjoy and feel comfortable with working. But I think I promised too much and ended up having to fall back on far less animation than I was initially wanting to produce so I blame myself for that as Laura is not an animator so did not know how much time it would take me to produce the animation. Thankfully she was very sympathetic and understanding of this. I have learnt for next time to not undertake too much and also to plan out my time more effectively so I don't end up with too much work to do too close to the deadline.

Responsive Collaborative: Finishing Touches

We were nearing the end of the production of our MSC video. Once we had all the animation complete and live action footage filmed, putting the video together on Premiere was a very easy process in comparison. I felt nervous about a week previous because I felt like we had spent a massive amount of time on the project and I had spent a lot of time on the animation process yet we had no real footage to show for it. But now in the post production stage of the project we were finding that making it last thirty seconds was absolutely no problem at all, in fact we ended up going way over the thirty second mark and our final video did up being nearer to fifty seconds in length.

For audio I think we were both fairly certain that a narration or any audio would not be necessary and that our video could be told visually instead. But without music it would be fairly bland so we did feel it needed some sort of soundtrack. I happened to be listening to the song Donkey Ride by Mr Scruff at the time of editing the video together and thought it would fit the upbeat playful tone we were going for with the video. Laura agreed and that was that.

Responsive Collaborative: Compositing Frames and Putting Together Our Video

I've discussed the parts of the collaboration where me and Laura could work heavily together. But there were other parts of which I needed to do individually, primarily, the upfront character animation. 

We had discussed the intriguing prospect of me teaching Laura to animate so she could help me animate the upfront animation. This could have proved to be very beneficial considering we were initially going to try to include all the types of fish that are protected by the MSC in our video. But unfortunately, due to time constraints and our conflicting schedules there simply was not enough time. So that meant it was up to me to produce most the upfront character animation, which was fine, I'm an animator, but due to my poor timekeeping skills, it took me a very long time to produce all this animation.

Furthermore, due to time constraints I only ended up being able to animate three types of fish which did fall massively short of the amount we were going for.

Once I had coloured all my frames which was a very time-consuming process, compositing the video together was a very easy process. I did most the compositing using Photoshop and Premiere. I would place my upfront fish character frames on top of Laura's hand painted backgrounds and then import the footage into Adobe Premiere.

From the very start we wanted to incorporate live-action with animation but in the above scene I felt it would be interesting to go that one step further and actually animate live action. So I filmed my own hand doing a stamp motion, inserted this footage onto the computer, print screened various points of the footage, magic wand tooled around the hand and erased the background and then composited these frames into the animation. I feel it looked pretty successful with the hand drawn animation and although it obviously stands out, it makes the footage look more professional and also demonstrates a variety of techniques that have been used.

Responsive Collaborative: Creating a Time-lapse

We had the idea fairly early on that our final video should contain a mixture of animation and live action. At the start of the storyboard I had the idea that we could film a time-lapse of Laura creating on of the backgrounds for the animation side of the animation after the text 'What does a sustainable ocean look like?' appears on screen, so we could literally talk an audience visually through what a sustainable ocean looks like to artists.

We borrowed our flatmate's camera to film the video. Due to scheduling conflicts we found it hard to find the time in the day to film the video. For the first attempt we filmed it around 4pm when the sun was not particularly high in the sky and was going down. We had twenty minutes to film the video and had the idea that instead of using the time-lapse setting on the camera we would film this way and then speed up the footage in post-production. But when we watched the footage back it was evident that due to the natural lighting that the footage was dark and increasingly dark as the footage went on. We felt like this was a problem that could easily be fixed in post-production by increasing the brightness. But there was another problem in that Laura felt we could see to much of her in the footage due to the camera angle so we decided to give it another go.

The second attempt was far more successful. To combat the issue of lighting we had had previously, Laura positioned herself to paint in the open doorway of our kitchen and the fact that she was at a lower angle meant that I could get a better shot with the camera. We played back the footage and it looks very successful and I felt I could easily transition it into the animation.

Responsive Collaborative: Creating a Storyboard

It was on a train down to Brighton that I put together a rough thumbnail storyboard of our MSC video. Both Laura and I knew what we wanted to get out of the video and what kind of techniques we wanted to do to create it. But the struggle for us was thinking of some sort of narrative for the video. We both knew we did not want to go overboard with information because talking from first hand experience of being people within that age range, we can both agree that if we see a video on a social media site such as Facebook or Twitter that contains just tons of information and isn't particularly interesting, no matter what it's for we would simply turn it off after ten seconds. So therefore we decided it was more important to create something that is entertaining, yet still informs viewers of what the MSC is and why they should buy MSC certified seafood.

INSERT STORYBOARD

I created this rough storyboard using small thumbnail images and showed it to Laura and she really liked it. After discussing how we could flesh it out and turn it into a thirty second video we were ready to go about producing our final outcome.

Responsive: Collaborative: Conducting Research

We both agreed that it would be beneficial to conduct research into the target market for the video. As stated it was people around the age of 18-25. This was easy because not only do we both fit slap bang in the middle of that age range but we are also surrounded by people in that age range every day. So we decided to conduct a questionnaire to ask people in the study. The questions consisted of 'Do you recognise this logo?' (referring to the MSC logo. And 'do you consider this logo when buying seafood products?' For example. It was actually pretty surprising to me when asking people these questions how few recognised the logo or are even aware of sustainably caught seafood. This proved to be beneficial to the project as it assured us of how important it actually is. Buying sustainably caught seafood is something that is so easy to do yet it is staggering how few people do, not because they don't care, simply because they are not aware.

Responsive Collaborative: Gathering Inspiration and Idea Generation

I know Laura very well as we've lived together for two years and I also feel like I understand how she likes to work and the sort of work she likes to produce. But I still felt like it would be beneficial for both of us to produce mood boards of not only art we like but art that we like that could inspire the brief.

This is what she produced for me…

I really liked her mood board of art that she likes. There are many reasons for this; firstly, I really liked that she included a WWF campaign poster as not only does that relate to work she likes but it also highlights her enthusiasm for conservation issues. Furthermore she also included work that she had created herself (the Cinderella illustration), this was very beneficial for me because it gave me an idea of what kind of her work we could incorporate into our collaborative work. And finally I also liked that she included Graphic Design artwork which I suppose is a given considering she is a Graphic Designer but it was also enlightening for me because I really do know nothing about Graphic Design as a medium and was excited to see if into the project I may learn more.

Her mood board of imagery relating to the brief was also very useful to me. I had thought that initially it would contain more art of fish and other things relating to the brief but I like that she went about in a different way than I had expected and found direct imagery. The part of this board I find the most beneficial to how we can go forward with the brief is the diagram of all fish that are protected by the MSC and this gave me inspiration for what creative direction to take our video in.

Responsive Collaborative: Forming a Group

When it came to forming a group in Responsive Laura Harris and I decided to work together. We chose the YCN Marine Stewardship Council brief because we felt it would tackle issues that we are both passionate about. Laura has always been interested in conservation of animals and the sustainability of our planet and has in the past expressed interest in doing Graphic Design briefs for charities such as WWF.

Another detail about mine and Laura's relationship is that we are housemates and so a while back now I remember doing a weekly shop with her at Aldi, she was buying fish and knowing that she's passionate about issues like this I pointed out that the MSC tag on a product meant that the fish had been sustainably caught and if a seafood product does not have this label on it it probably has not been caught sustainably. Laura was shocked to hear this and had absolutely know idea about it. That is why we both felt we could emotionally connect with this brief and add a personal touch to it. 

The brief was to create an around thirty second video that raises awareness about the Marine Stewardship Council and what it is that the MSC do to protect the ocean's fish. They also wanted to aim the video at an age range of 18-25 year olds who they feel might not be too aware of these issues or know what exactly the MSC is.

Responsive: International KYM Competition

When it came to choosing briefs for the Responsive Individual Practice I struggled to find, not good briefs, but briefs I felt i could successfully take on and that were more tailored top me and the way I like to work. I really liked working on LoopDeLoop because there wasn't too much challenge there for me, the only thing I needed to keep in mind then was making sure it fit the theme of 'Sisters' and looped. The KYM competition was far more of a challenge in terms of how to tackle a brief. The competition was set up to combat the issues that are going on in the world today, being the refugee crisis. Each participant could submit up to three works and any technique could be used to create the 'caricatures'. I felt like this was a very interesting brief to take on and I thank Malachi for bringing it to my attention. But I knew it was going to be a brief I was going to need to put a lot of thought into to ensure I create a work that is sympathetic and takes the issues seriously.

I knew my weaknesses going into this brief. Firstly I feel like I am aware of the issues surrounding the refugee crisis going on in the world, but I am in know way an expert or have experienced any of their suffering myself so I felt like I did not have the right to create anything with any great meaning behind it or beat anyone over the head with a how they should feel sort of message.

I could have attempted to create a political cartoon about the issue, but again I am no expert on the subject so felt like I could't really do this. How I went about this brief was by finding images of refugees that are already powerful and provocative and create work from these. I did not necessarily see this as 'cheating' because I felt that it was instead working from what I see and since these events are not necessarily taking place nearby to me, I was only really going to be able to conduct research by finding imagery from the internet. 

Once I had found the images I wanted to work from I drew my own drawings of each of the images with a fine liner pen, scanned them in and edited them on Photoshop.

It was when I edited the images on Photoshop that I could really be creative because up until this point there was nothing unique about what I had done at all. I had imagined from the start that I would use a glowing technique on each image but I did not think it would turn out as successfully as it did. I realised that with each of these images that the less is more approach could be applied effectively to this project.

I really enjoyed working on this brief even if the subject is very serious and troubling but I felt like I came out of it having created work that was not over-the-top with sentiment and did not try to beat anyone over the head with a 'message' or feeling a certain way but I still do hope that when people view the images they do think about the many issues going on in the world today about refugees and at least feel something.

Responsive Collaborative: Where Are We Now?

So over the past few weeks I have been producing animation for mine and Laura's collaborative brief. The brief for the Marine Stewardship Council states that we are to produce a around thirty second video highlighting exactly what it is the Marine Stewardship Council do but also making it entertaining. Our thirty second video has basically been planned out with a storyboard so I know exactly what it is I need to be doing. Essentially the thirty second video is going to contain a heck of a lot of animation so that is why we've been basically doing a lot of this individually. Then once we've produced a lot of our own work, e.g. I've produced a lot of frame by frame animation and Laura's produced a lot of background designs we can come together and put it all into our final visual response.

So, what animation have I been doing? Well in our animation we are trying to incorporate every, if not most of the types of fish protected by the MSC and they feature in our animation as animated characters. So I have been basically going through this list of fish animating each and every one.

Of course, I know my limitations. I am animating these fish with traditional 2D animation which of course is a slow, time consuming process and as I have been referred to as 'the sloth of the animation world' I know there is no way I will be able to get to all of these.

But for the fish I have already animated I have found reference through sites such as Shutterstock. Unfortunately it has often been quite difficult to obtain footage of all the specific types from the diagram above.

Using reference footage has proved incredibly helpful in researching exactly how each type of fish moves and in particular it has helped me a great deal in creating keyframes. I would never rotoscope any of the footage I find (unless I found myself under huge time pressure which is fairly likely) but the footage has helped a great deal in capturing the physicality of these creatures.

Responsive Collaborative: Research of MSC Website and Social Media

The Marine Stewardship Council is a non-profit organisation dedicated to addressing the problem of unsustainable fishing and safeguarding supplies for the future. So basically ensuring fishing is sustainable for the future. They set credible standards for sustainable fishing and supply chain traceability. If organisations want to prove they are sustainable they have to meet the MSC's criteria. Then if they meet these standards they become tagged with the MSC label which makes it easy for the consumer to see that the seafood has been supplied by ethical fisheries.

I conducted research into their previous consumer campaigns and found the above video 'What is the MSC and why is sustainable seafood important?'. The video is very informative and clear on what exactly the MSC is about and what their aims are. The video is also entirely animated although I feel visually it's lacking. Sometimes simplicity is really good and can still be eye catching but I just found the animation's visual aesthetic to be slightly dull which makes it harder for the viewer to pay attention to something and take in the information. Therefore I feel our animation, though informative also needs to be able to entertain people.