Ink

Hello! Happy 2009 everyone!

Last semester I've been able to complete a rough draft of almost all my animation sequences. For this semester I need to render out all that animation with the gouache (and also the digital parts). I can already see that it is going to be a lot of hard work - sometimes even harder than animating. I'm going to try my absolute best to do this well.

Over the break and during this past week, I've been working on my two ink sequences.

The first one I will unfortunately need to rescan - because when you watch it in higher quality the paper leaves a sort of mark, and I think I won't be able to live with that...

I see a few mistakes here (a few frames that are in the wrong order) - I'll fix that after I rescan.

Here is the second one (in the final version I'll probably add more frames of the photos on the wall - just so you're aware of them, also, maybe slow down the camera move a little?):

By the way - the ink was really fun to draw with. I think it somehow works for animating because the shades of gray usually look pretty consistent. Matching the tones is much more difficult for me with the gouache and water colors, but the result is in color so I think it's worth the effort.

There are two things I would like to have help with - one is editing (I mean timing), so if you find that some parts are way too short/long please let me know. Also, if you have thoughts about how I should paint certain scenes, that would be nice too. Right now I'll go with what I think and hope that all the styles will click together at the end. After I'm done painting a scene there won't be time to repaint - I hope I get things right!!!

Thanks!

The fur blanket and the transition to digital animation

Hello!

I wanted to post some new clips.

The first one is a part of the fur blanket animation (second attempt). It's not complete yet, but at least I found a better way to do it (I found out that pencil marks are visible in the lightbox even through gouache - so that made it easier to trace). I'll fix the white edges some of the frames have (I'll probably get to that next semester).

The next one is a longer another clip of the blanket sequence. Also at the end there's the transition to digital.

I'll try and move the last drawings a little to the right, to show that I meant for it to be half a face (and it isn't an aspect ratio mistake).

Also - when she says "but that was nice of her" (at the end of the clip) - I was planning on animating lip-sync just for that line. It could strengthen the idea that the story part is finished and we're back in present "reality", but do you think it is necessary? (or does it work well without it too? what do you think?)

By the way, there are two shots in pencil that are not so clear (because of the low quality of the clip). one is of her hand pulling the blanket. the other is of the package falling to the ground.

Now I need to think about the last shots and the ending. It's a challenge - I have some ideas but they still need to crystallize. Thanks so much for the suggestions made in class about this - that was helpful.

Structure...

Hi again,

I wanted to post a few ideas about structure -

I think I'm going to use Prof. Sofian's idea to make the opening and ending sequences of my project using digital animation. I think it's a very good idea because it could really separate the story in the memory from the parts which are supposed to be "the present". It's also very cool conceptually ("new" animation technique shows the present...). What I'm gonna do is trace over my already scanned-in pencil tests in Photoshop and see how that looks.

Here I've made a few test (I think I'll use a darker blue maybe)-

Do you prefer one over the others?

A

Flat colors

B

you can barely tell - but this one has a little shadow in it.

C

this is the same only in black and white and blue (with shadows). It may be more stylized, but I think its also less vivid...

Also - I wanted to post the 2 issues people commented to me about in seminar.

1. What should be the opening question?

It could start with a general "tell me that story again", or maybe I could start with the question "do you think people by nature are good or bad?" (and repeat the same audio at the end).

I think that repeating the audio might be a good idea, but I'm not sure, I'll have to try it.

2. The technique and color transitions.

So, after seeing my bits of animation all together and hearing people's comments, I became a little worried.

I hope the transitions will feel natural and click together when it's all painted and cut together.

I mean, a lot of films move back and fourth between animation techniques. I just wonder how they end up looking so seamless. Well, they are made by pros (that probably has something to do with it...).

In any case, I made a chart that shows how my project is structured so far. Making lists makes me feel calm.

- sometimes I reused a frame just to show the technique is repeated.

Ok, that's it for now.

I'll post the blanket sequence next.

The chickens and the cot

For last class I've finished the dirty kitchen sequence with the three chickens. I'm so glad there are pet chicken owners out there, who not only took the time to film their beloved chick, but also posted the clips on youtube . What a great source that is for research!

I think that the kitchen animation could use slightly extended pauses here and there (where the still images are) - but I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out.

The animation which appears after this could use some more work (more frames). I'll find a way to make it more obvious that the boots that appear around her are those of the soldiers mentioned (I could make their pants a kind of green perhaps).

Also, I'll try my best to make the next sequences interesting. I hope I can find a good way to build up to the point where the woman brings her the warm blanket, which is the most important part of the story. This part should probably really stand out (maybe by using high contrast in color, or interesting angles?).

But here is what I got so far (the subtitle font has changed - I hope it is more pleasant to read!).





Another question that's on my mind (but there is still time to think about this) is how to make the "present" storytelling graphically different from the story itself (which is in gouache). I'm referring to the very beginning and the very end of my project which is kind of an exposition and conclusion. In these parts she is a grandma making a bed (the idea is that while she is doing this - she is telling me a story).

There are lots of ways to approach this. My original idea was to use really faded water color wash on this animation - but that might be too similar to the gouache. I'll try to think a few good options and make some samples I can post.

A reference to the Holocaust

Hi everyone,

This is the sequence which comes right after the previous typewriter scene. I'm so glad that you could connect with this in class (though I did have my doubts). To take Jake's advice, I'm going to leave it alone for now - and perhaps wait and see if this works in the context of the entire animatic. My biggest concern here is to avoid making an overly simplistic representation that would seem impersonal. I don't want to be spoon feeding this information either. That is the problem with using iconic images, I guess.

Before I started this, I did some more research. I searched an online photo archives to look at images of the trains. Also, I found that many Holocaust memorial monuments use the image of the hand in some way.

I also asked my grandmother how she would feel about images of trains. I mentioned that I thought it would be a bit harsh. She replied that "it's the truth, and it is harsh". She's absolutely right, but it's still not obvious to me that this sequence fits into my project.

It must seem weird to you that I'm being so critical about this, but there is a reason.

There are all sorts of ways people express their ideas about this history, and some of them, intentionally or not, seem disrespectful.

I happen to watch a CNN video report last year, which was about a German children's comic book that was made to explain the history of the Holocaust. Personally, I think this comic book is offensive. I find it's a cheap way to show kids what was happening. If you're interested, here is a link (just to warn you - this report has some documentary footage that is difficult to watch):

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2008/02/21/pleitgen.germany.nazi.comic.cnn

I don't really think that I'm doing something that is similar to this (also, animation is different from comic books, of course). But I think it's also important to look at something which, to me, is just crossing the line. In any case, I'm just trying to be as respectful as possible.

Here is also a link to the film "Silence" (which we watched last year in Prof. Panushka's class). You can see how the trains were shown there. Watching it for the second time, I think it's extremely well done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNLqjK6UMIc

The typewriter sequence

For the passed week I've been working on this sequence and blocking in the timing (this clip has sound - so you can check out if it works).

I'm already seeing a few places where the timing should be a bit different (and one shot has no blinking in it!) . However, I have to remind myself that there will be music as well - so shots that seem too long now might feel more natural with music.

I have another dilemma about what to do next. The next line is "...to say that they(the Polish) have met another Jew that could be killed..". It might seem to be a kind of background remark, but I'm not sure if I should treat it that way. Most of what my grandmother and I talked about then, was really her experiences from the concentration camps. This is what makes this line so serious, and why I'm not sure how to approach it.

If I keep it really abstract (like I have it in the animatic now),that would be the safest way to go - and it could work out really well. However, it might seem like an understatement, or so unclear that it almost wouldn't mean anything.

On the other hand, if I try to explain this in a more graphic way (for example: use images associated with these events) then it would be 100% clear. But I may be seriously unqualified to animate this, and the last thing I want is for it to seem ridiculous in any way.

I think it would be best to find a way that has a little bit of both. I'll definitely have to think about this some more.

A couple at the doorway

These are a few shots I've been working on this week. It is the part where a young couple is standing near the apartment entrance. There are minimal lines depicting the space in the rough animation here - I will have backgrounds though.
The timing is also still flexible (I'm pretty sure it will change).
I'd love to know what you think about the cuts.




The next shot will be a wide shot of the house with them standing at the bottom. Then the windows of the house will become the typewriter keys.

Hope this works...