Trailer

music from: Spanish Summer by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

So here is the trailer I made for my final project animation. I think I have managed to hint at the storyline without any spoilers. The first time round i basically just did a short version of the animation and I was like oh...people watching that won't want to watch it now cause they'll know what happens...so yeah I think this does the job much better.

Sausage Party

I love this trailer! I love how it starts of like its going to be your classic kids animation with a cute story about how the foods love getting chosen and then BOOM its like food massacre! Its so clever i love the thought behind it like if food was alive when we ate it how it would react and the fact that we cut it up and eat it etc is like torturing it! And then they fight back!! I think it is just hilarious and I love animation for being able to show these crazy ideas!
You can very much tell it has Seth Rogans input in this story! he said it came from an innocent place, they were talking about how humans project their emotions onto things around them like toys etc but it we did it to food it would be completely "fucked up". There are lots of stereotypical character as in like if there was a french stick of bread he would actually be french etc. As well as this being hilarious and crude and totally out there, it is also said to tackle the issue of whether god exists and troubles with religion. I am so looking forward to this film!! Finally an adult feature animation! 

Trailer research

Trailers seem to start off by setting the scene and showing what is wrong or the current situation, then show a peak of the journey that happens because of this and a few obstacles they encounter. They also show a few of the jokes if its supposed to be funny to show the audience that it will be a comedy.

The way its put together seems to be music overplayed that fits the mood of the animation, sometimes changing as the plot unfolds with some dialogue coming through. Text is often used to explain things or show producer and release date. In some cases a voice over is used but when using a lot of dialogue from the film itself they use more text.

2000 word critical report on exiting strategy

12 month action plan for exiting college

My plan for leaving university is probably not your typical plan to start with, as I no longer live with my parents I don’t have them to fall back on while I find my dream job. When I leave university I will need to get a job pretty quickly to pay bills, as I will be living with my boyfriend back in Grantham (we will not be able to survive on his wage alone). Grantham is actually a great place to live, although I am unsure of career prospects in this industry, but there are direct train routes to places like London, Leeds, Nottingham and Manchester, which are all have better prospects in the animation industry, so it would be possible to commute.

The first step of my plan is to sign onto an agency, or find a part time job in a shop or a cafe. This will allow me to help out with bills whilst living in Grantham yet give me time and freedom to search for a good job in industry.

The way I will go about finding a job in industry is by paying close attention to animation jobs on twitter and actively searching online. The online platforms I plan to use vary from Linkedin, and I have updated my page, Guardian Jobs and Reed online.

In the meantime I plan to continue my creative practice, as I am realistic about the quality of my work and do not yet feel it is of a professional standard so do not expect to find a job straight away. One of the ways I plan to do this is by working as a freelance graphic designer at Craven Digital as they have too much work at the moment and have asked for some of my time. This will allow me to develop and hone my design skills and hopefully build up my portfolio whilst I continue to look for design jobs. Ideally I would love a permanent position in a design/animation studio for financial security and to make friends and contacts, however as well as being realistic about the quality of my work I’m also realistic about the industry and I am well aware that a lot of work is freelance rather than contract based. But I have also analysed the benefits of working freelance, because freelance work means you constantly have to hunt for work it means that you are constantly updating yourself on what’s going on in industry. Also because of the time frame I don’t think you would ever get bored working freelance due to the pace of turning around multiple projects and the need to be as productive as possible to get through enough projects in a year to keep the income coming in.

Another part of my twelve month plan is to learn to drive over this period. I believe it will greatly broaden my field of opportunities as I can go wherever for a job with no restrictions and no expensive train fares for last minute interviews. It would also take the stress out of going for interviews, as trains make me anxious if I’ve never been to the destination before. Of course I need money in order to learn to drive. I am expecting a relatively large tax rebate soon so hopefully that will start me off and then I can hopefully pay the rest with the temporary job I have at the time.

Another creative opportunity that I would like to pursue is working with The Journey Man who did the voice over in my final major project. He was very pleased with how the animation turned out and has said that he would be very interested in finding funding to do more projects like this in the future and will be in touch. I am really excited for this and I hope it will come off as I really enjoyed making it. To try and make this a reality I have looked into some possible funding that you can see on my blog, including the women in film grant but I think it would be good to look together to find something that works for us both. I also plan to join funding networks and soon after graduation, delve further into any possible international stories that could be animated and international pots of money that might pay for it. In the meantime I’ll also return to where I first heard the story I animated at a lantern walk in Skipton castle run by the Woodland Trust. I think it would be a good exercise would be to go back to their next one and hear more stories, as this was big inspiration last time. I will also be looking for more events like this around the country.

This project was so great for me, mainly because The Journey Man was such a pleasure to work with and I truly believe combined with the freelance graphic design work, I might actually have a chance of making enough to be a viable income if we can source funding to do more similar projects to extended practice, and that would be a dream lifestyle. I would set myself up an office hopefully in my house and work from home in a more professional environment than a living room possibly expanding into a separate office with the hope of hiring more employees if the project work took off. I think that this would be a lot longer than twelve months down the line though, but I have thought that it would be good to do what Fettle Animation Studio do by taking on recent Grads from Creative Skillset and then half their wage is paid for by them.

Although this plan of action for the future seems to be quite a nice idea on paper, I think personally I am not ready to go straight into industry, and a studio yet. I don’t yet feel confident enough in my work and I think having a six month period after graduating to do freelance work and possibly work with The Journey Man will really improve my portfolio and showreel and hopefully I will then have something I am proud to show to industry. I think that by being employed by a studio of a really high standard there’s lots of pressure to have your work up to that standard and I don’t feel confident that mine is yet. I feel that this confidence could come soon though, as I am improving with everything I do. For example I am extremely pleased with my final major project but a lot of my other work does not meet this standard, and I think in six months I could be where I feel I should be now.

If this isn’t the case in six months, I will review the situation and take an alternate plan of attack of looking around for internships where I will be able to learn new things, get experience and improve my show reel without as much pressure of having to meet the standards of a paid employee on a salary yet with enough to learn more skills so that I could impress them to be at that stage one day. This could also turn into a job if all goes well or at least create a bank of professional contacts that I can reach out to when I am ready to apply for a job. Another benefit of following this plan of attack is that I think it would be a good opportunity to travel out of my comfort zone and work somewhere I have not been before either in the country or internationally, because I know it would only be for a short term it would not be as daunting as say taking a completely new job in a new place. I do also plan to improve my French and Spanish so this may come in handy when applying for international internships.

As for local, national and international networks, I would like to and plan on joining a few storytelling networks. This would be useful for me to source new material for future projects that could be similar to my extended practice. I plan on not limiting myself by only joining those in the UK, I think it would be best to look internationally also to source new foreign material as this is likely to have been portrayed to a UK audience and it would be interesting to make stories of other cultures relate to our culture as the UK grows more multicultural every day. A great example of one of these networks is The International Storytelling Network that host events all around the world. What I like most about the network is that they focus on telling “stories that change the world” meaning the stories told have meaning, message and objective. The best kind of stories. This might also provide a great opportunity to travel myself and meet these storytellers for first hand research from the country of origin. For this I may need to find translators but I know many people who are bilingual in many different languages including Japanese, Spanish, Hindi, Polish, Latvian, Chinese, and many more. I have also looked more locally at Storytelling clubs where you can go to tell or listen to people’s stories. The closest to where I will be based in Grantham is Leicester Guild of Storytelling, Tales at the Watermill (also Leicester) and Fables, Tales & Folklore in Peterborough. There are plenty to go and explore that will give me many contacts which will be useful especially if the work with The Journey Man doesn’t go ahead. - I’ll be able to take my business cards with me and a link to the work I have already created for extended practice to sell my practice.

The main way I will present myself to new contacts is through an online portfolio with a website that I just set up which will show all of my best work. I think this is great as you can just send them a link and everything you wanted to show them or are proud of is right there easily accessible, no pesky folders and having to physically show people, no YouTube links where they can also see things your not proud of. I have set up a Vimeo account for my professional standard work. I think eventually when I have more of a portfolio to show I will switch to Squarespace or possibly pay someone to create a professional website for me if I have the money.

My strategies for contacting people and making links with industry would be mainly on linkedIn, maintaining connections with the alumni group and following the creative network events at LCA and by volunteering at festivals (which would get me in to see the animations with less cost and also allow me to network with the organizers of the festivals who may put me in touch with professionals). This will be useful to reach out to people who I admire and find out how they got where they are and eventually ask for advice which will hopefully steer me in a good direction to a path I want to take.

I do not wish to undertake a masters degree as I feel like I have had enough of being education and I want to start my life now and move forward and I feel very stuck in education right now. I think my portfolio would benefit more from going into industry because I will learn from the professionals around me and I will face more problems that I will have to solve and I think this would really push me into improving. If I did change my mind I would possibly think about a creative masters where I can take some time out to improve my abilities if I needed to.

However I would be more interested in doing some short courses for example in script writing, storytelling, life drawing, and possibly storyboarding. I think all of these things would really benefit my practice.

Another path I could take would be teaching. However I don’t think I would want to go back to university to do this so a way around would be to get into teaching at a higher education level by maybe in a few years proceeding with guest lecturing to build up experience to be hired part time, and then get my PGCE through that so I can teach younger children. I would want to teach animation or art in general.

So to sum up my plan, I would like to take six months to improve my portfolio and become a better, more confident professional. In which time I will be earning money through a job doing whatever I can get with some freelance graphic design on the side, improving my French and Spanish (and learning to drive), and hopefully The Journey Man and I will find some funding and will plan our next venture together.

After the six month period I will reassess where I am at in terms of portfolio. If I feel confident enough in it then I will start applying for jobs in the industry. If I am not at that stage yet then I will apply for internships both in the UK and internationally. If this is the path I take I will think more seriously about doing some short courses alongside like script writing. 

Eventually by the end of the twelve months (or if I decide to intern after eighteen months) I hope to either have a full time job with The Journey Man creating our own series for children’s television which would be fantastic, or a job working full time in an animation studio.

What can i read after the course to keep up with animation

To keep up with animation in the future, I will continue to scroll twitter and all the things I follow including studios such as Disney and Blue zoo.
I will also read Skwiggly as much as I can including looking at the tutorials on how to better myself and how to find jobs etc.
I will also read Animation magazine as it is full of updates from all over the place including a job board which could be very useful.
There is also Cartoon brew which i haven't looked at properly but it does look like it would be a good site to follow. There is a list of festivals on there which are all over the world so I think it would be good to keep track of that, I would love to go to an international festival at some point its just the money thats stopping me. Klik! in Amsterdam looks really good and I would love to go. It also happens to be the month of my birthday.

Whats inspiring me

Walk Demo Prt 1 from Joseph Merideth on Vimeo.

On BJ Crawfords blog I came across this post which is Joseph Meredith teaching at Columbia college in Chicago. It is fantastic! And I actually feel really put out that we didn't learn like this. Such a fundamental task as creating a good walk cycle and we had to learn it ourselves. I feel like I payed £8,500 to learn from youtube which I could have learnt at home. This teacher is amazing and I have learnt so much from it I just wish I found it earlier or our tutors had actually thought us like this. I feel my animation would have been so much stronger if I had more input like this. I now understand more about the numbering systems and how to position things etc. Its all well and good reading animation survival kit but my brain is the kind of brain that needs things fully explaining and giving examples all the way through like this. I am now following his vimeo and twitter and I hope to look through more of his videos and teach myself things properly.

what is inspiring me

Character Animation Reel from bj crawford on Vimeo.

I found this great character design showreel on Vimeo. I just love how old school the animation is like a lot of it is done on paper but it is so real and perfect using all the principles of animation. This is such an inspiration and makes me realise what my animation is missing. I think I would like to try a simple animation and make sure I use all of the principles. I think it would really improve my showreel and I would like to do it when I get chance. I especially like the panda in the second scene. I love the use of weight and gravity and reaction to the wind. I think reaction is a really important part in believing the animation. I also love how that hat moves in the next scene when he takes it off his head. It reminds me very much of classic Disney.

As I was inspired so much by this I decided to find out who this animator was.

His name is BJ Crawford and there is not much information about him that I can find. However! He has worked on some really big films! Including Epic and Ice age continental drift. He has worked as a freelance animator and at Blue Sky Studios.
Listening to some of the showreel it felt like some was done for 11 second club and I was right! the one with the hat was for it. It shows that even professionals do this and its good practice and improves your portfolio! This was a few years ago now though I wonder if he still enters things.

Future

I sent The Journey Man a link to my animation and he seems really impressed with it! here is what he said: 

Sam - I have just watched the animation. It's fantastic! I love what you have done with the story - the characterisations, the music, the colours, the fitting together of the vocals - I am very impressed. Thank you so much for getting in touch to invite me to be part of this project. I don't think anything needs to be changed from my perspective. It's a really tight and fun piece of work. I hope you get what you need from this both in regards to your grading and further work. I will put a link to this immediately from my Facebook page and also eventually from my website. However, I would like to talk to you more about some further projects. It might be worth us having a phone conversation some time soon.

I will definitely be back in touch, but for now, let me again say thank you and well done, before I watch the film again :-)


What an awesome response is that!? I was so thrilled to read how happy he was with it and that he still wants to work with me in the future! Its something that i would really love to do as i thoroughly enjoyed this project so to get paid to do something similar again would just be amazing! 

As for funding he said he would look into it when we first spoke but i think it would be worth looking myself.

There is screen yorkshire http://www.screenyorkshire.co.uk/investment/yorkshire-content-fund/  which offers between £10,000 and £500,000 but usually no more than 10% of the total production budget and their investment must be matched on identical terms with an equivalent amount of private sector investment. I believe that means we would have to get the same amount of funding from somewhere else in order for screen yorkshire to give us theirs. But after I leave uni neither of us will be in yorkshire so i don't think we would even qualify.

There is something call AIR (animator in residence) where they are basically a museum exhibit being watched develop their idea in bradford museum of photography. When they are done the proposal is sent to channel 4 who usually commission the film. This sounds pretty interesting but I'm not sure it would work as I am collaborating for mine and I don't think he would like to sit in a museum as he actually has a life.

On an international level there is the Women in Film Finishing Fund http://womeninfilm.org/film-finishing-fund/
"The Women In Film Finishing Fund gives grants to filmmakers working in both short and long formats, in all genres — narrative, documentary, animated and experimental. To apply for the Finishing Fund, the filmmaker must have completed 90% of principal photography and have a rough cut at the time of application. You do not have to be a Women In Film member to apply, and we encourage applications from around the world."
I think i could qualify for this and therefore apply when we had our next project planned/nearly complete. However I think it would be better to get funding from the beginning. Still an idea though, closest one so far!


So there are things about its just a case of finding them and makings are we fit the criteria.

Animate CC

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/animate/features.html

I think I really want to trial animate CC as it think it may solve some issues I have with photoshop. For one it think my lifework will be better as a) you can play with the line after you have drawn it and b) its a vector so it won't look bad blown up. I think now they have changed it it will be easier to navigate and I am looking forward to that. There are many features on here that look very interesting including being able to tag a colour and change it throughout the whole composition. That would be SO cool and so much easier!It also has a HTML 5 canvas template which looks super exciting!
I am really looking forward to giving this a go!In fact...im going to have a look right now!
I decided to use a tutorial as i find this really helps to get the hang of software instead of looking around blindly they actually tell you about stuff.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SD9NbRbhhw it was actually a really good tutorial. great pace and very informative.

Here is what I made! (using his assets)

Overall I think this software has a lot of potential and is actually relatively simple to use with the option to make it more complicated. I think a good step from here would to be to do another tutorial then create my own character and attempt to animate it with no tutorial. I think if i am able to get the hang of it, it will make animating a lot easier for things where you don't have time to animate frame by frame. Its also great for web based things and can create cool looping gifs for websites etc. This is what I would consider low cost animation and a lot of companies may choose to use it so learning it will be of great benefit to me. It also means I can offer clients something more within their budget. I think my FMP would have been done in a lot less time if i had of used this and the lines would be much cleaner. Although i did want it to be frame by frame. I do love how this does your in-betweens for you. Yes I am pleasantly surprised and glad I gave it a go. I will definitely make the most of my free trial.

Loop de loop

So Loop de loop are finally open for submissions! The deadline is 29th May so I have just cleaned up my gymnast and made it a gif and submitted! Here is my entry again and proof i submitted :)

CV

Here is my CV after making a few adjustments after talking to mike. Apparently I was underselling my abilities in the skills section buy not saying how competent i was. Hopefully that is better now. I also have changed the email address to be a professional one not the uni one.

Online portfolio

I have set up an online portfolio/website/blogger for my professional practice as I thought it would be a good way of showing people what I can do when they ask. I can also put this on my business card so they have somewhere specific to go to. 

I am actually really pleased with how it turned out. I was thinking of completely designing a website but that would take a lot of time and re learning things and there are some things I have no idea how to do yet and it would also require getting a domain name. So I decided to use my new professional google email and created a blogger but made it look less like a blog and more like a portfolio. Including tabs for all different areas of practice including animation, graphic design, character design, and photography.

I also created a vimeo account so that the videos on my website looked more professional and all the same and its a new account so I can just stick to the good pieces of animation. Unfortunately theres a weekly update limit for the free one so I will have to upload more next week and alter it on the website.

Heres the link to my new site!!

http://elysejackson.blogspot.co.uk

Business card

Here is my first attempt at my business card.
I went with some texture and the reversed colours and an illustration of myself.

I quite like it but I'm not sure if it looks professional? I like how it looks really sleek on one side and then its a bit more fun on the other.

Okay I have decided to go with the textured front and no texture on the back so you can see the words better. I have also decided to just put email website and phone number on the back as it would be an awfully long list with all the social media and it looks cleaner without. Plus if you go on my website all the info is there AND you can find me on most social media with just my name thats on the business card.

I have versions saved ready to print.

Tattoo

My initial thought here was use the red to cover the red like I had read online. so i lined up the cape on the neck with the main part of the red on the old design. luckily this made the other parts hidden too and there was a convinetntly shaped helmet nose in the original work. Unfortunately we agreed the placement was wrong and it need to be further up the arm. 

I then made it larger and moved it up but couldn't find a place where it hid things so i flipped the image making the dark shadows of the cape hide the majority with a little spilling over to the abs which I'm hoping will blend with the lines and shading.

 Once we decided he was happy with the position I started adding the bits that we had discussed. I sent him a photo of the top half and he was very excited and said he loved it. I didnt really know what to do next so he said he wanted a shield near but not central on the elbow and an immortals face. So i put a detailed shield just above the elbow spilling onto it and wrapping it round the arm and the immortal face wrapping round the forearm. I used photos and merged them together on photoshop for this as he wanted photorealism and tattooists do that from actual photos. It would get really rubbish if they were copying my slightly off copy.

This is all he has asked for for now and he is very excited for it. I have suggested he goes for a consult first though to double check it is possible mostly for the coverage as this can be tricky.

Business card research

 I have found lots of nice business cards. A lot of art ones have an illustration on i guess this helps show what the person can do so thats a good idea. I also really like the ones with the reverse colours on each side.I would love to have some texture to it. Here are a collection of business cards that I like.

Showreel 2016

I have created my showreel. It is less than one minute as recommended and it has a happy tune in the background that is just instrumental so it doesn't detract from anything else. It contains what I believe to be my best work. 

Tattoo cover up

This website is a great site for getting info on tattoo cover ups including use of colours. I learn you can cover tattoos using a darker version of the same colour or just a dark colour. also the colours merge together so if you put blue over red you'll end up with  a purply colour.: https://tatring.com/fixing-hiding-tattoos/How-To-Coverup-an-Old-or-Bad-Tattoo


this is also a good one explaining what can  and can't be done: http://www.idiotsguides.com/style-and-personal-care/tattoos-and-piercings/covering-up-an-old-tattoo/


From a bit of research it seems like the only things that will cover the red in his original design would be a darker red, a deep purple or a black. I think red or black could work in the design he is wanting. It also needs to be quite a bold piece that sits over it to cover it.

Showreel

Okay so looking at lots of tips and tricks for good showreels online including ones the tutors posted here are the important bits that I want to include in my own:

- Less than 1 minute- keep them interested
- Put your best work first- some people only have time to watch a bit and will turn off if its not good enough.
- End with a good piece- lasting impression
- Name and contact details on title page- just 1 not sequence- put at end too
-When sending showreel to specific people make sure its tailored to them.
- If theres group work- indicate which bit you did either on a caption or on a word document breakdown
- Show good animation techniques 

what free software is out there

So an alternative to buying an adobe licence would be to use other software that is free. Of course this may be difficult as i am used to using this software and it all goes together and works in tune with each other as that is how they are built. But if I didn't need to mix and match then i could use free software. Here are some i have found that might be worth taking a look at.
Serif DrawPlus Starter Edition is free and can be downloaded here: http://www.serif.com/free-graphic-design-software/ It looks really good as it has a lot of features that photoshop does and is supposed to be intuitive to use. It also has an animation component which is very important. Unfortunately this only is available to download on windows and i have a mac. They do supply software for mac but it is not free. HOWEVER £39.99 is a damn good one off price for design software!!It is called Affinity designer and it won apple designer award 2015. It looks very useful and dare i say it may look even better than adobe? It feels like it has photoshop and illustrator in one package. Im not 100% sure if this has animation but there is a free trial so it might be worth looking at. There is also a photo editing version which would be like the equivalent to lightroom.

For 3D there is blender which I have previously used and seems quite easy and now with my knowledge of Maya I might get along a bit better with it. I think i would like to give it a go to keep my abilities up. However i don't think you can import existing puppets like Moom into it. 

Pencil 2D is a software that is for more frame by frame traditional animation like i am currently doing rather than flash. This is supposed to be relatively easy to use especially if you have used the adobe suite before.

So there are definitely things out there that i could use including many more than this. It is just a case of whether i feel any of these do a good enough job compared to the adobe suite and how much I am willing to pay. I think it would be good practice to download these things and have a look at them at least for future reference for example if i really need to do something on a tight budget or if i won't be making money out of what i am making.

loop de loop

So I have finished my animation, coloured it and put a background on. The line work is still a little rough so if i get chance i will fix this. but looks good from far away xD I was really pleased with how the movement turned out on this as i didn't rotoscope it. This shows that my animation has come a long way over the past year as i wouldn't have even attempted this last year. 
Now just to wait until loop de loop puts up its new website and is open for submission. I understand there may be some guidelines to come but i will just edit to that if needs be.
I also still have the black and white one if i decide i don't like these bright colours.

Tattoo

I have been asked to design a tattoo. This might be difficult as it is more realistic. It also has to cover an existing tattoo and create part of a half sleeve. The theme is spartans featuring King Leonidas in his helmet.
This is how i started off, then the bottom left corner came second and we both preferred this close up idea.

So i  created this, i started to think more about the background too as it is creating a sleeve this will help with the wraparound.

This shield would be wrapped around the arm 

connecting to leonidus from the previous image.

The client really likes this and he gave me feedback while drawing it. however now i need to think logistically about how this wraps around the arm and more importantly how we are going to cover this existing tattoo. I think there needs to be something with  a lot of lines over this as a block colour might show this through.

Loop de loop

So this time the loop de loop theme is tumble. I didn't really have an idea for this but i googled tumble and a lot of things came up that i had not thought of. One of which was tumble as in gymnastics. This is something i have always been interested in and wanted to try and animate so i thought i would give this a go. Now rotoscoping would have been easier but i have already done this before and i wanted to see if i could do it just with a bit of reference as it would be something to be more proud of. I went on you tube and found this video which i chose i snipet of at around 13 seconds in.

I like this move and i can create like a tick tock to make it loop.

This is what i have so far just to mark out the moves:

I think i am going to use some extra bits to make it look more interesting like paint splashing from the feet when she kicks or something. maybe some cool colours. I also thought about making the girl a colour silhouette but I'm not sure about that.

how much is adobe suit going to cost after uni and why i have to have it legally

So If i want to continue using the Adobe softwares when I leave uni and start using them for commercial work then I will have to get a proper licence. There are a few options of costs here. I can pay for a years worth monthly for £45.73 a month or I can pay 68.60 a month as and when I need it. This sounds more expensive but actually if you only need it for 6 months total out of the year then that would be £411.60 instead of £548.78… but that means that paying for the whole year actually works out cheeper as your only paying 137.18 more for the extra 6 months. I think when I leave I will do it on a monthly basis until I get work coming in where I need to have the software for more than a couple of months of the year. When this happens i will pay for the year but monthly. I will only be able to afford this though when I have a steady job.

Competition brief

I have looked at YCN briefs and the Dowe edgburts one looks the most interesting to me. This is something entirely different to what i am going for extended practice which will give me a break from it whilst also being interesting. It is also something I have looked at in the past and have never tried. It is to create something new to bring the brand into the younger generation and to get them to drink coffee at home.

This is the brief:
Develop a creative campaign, new product, new packaging or communications idea for Douwe Egberts in the UK to appeal to younger consumers, to increase their awareness of Douwe Egberts and ideally have a theme that can extend across different media. It needs to present Douwe Egberts as a brand that is contemporary, without losing its heritage and expertise. We know that people in the 18-30 age bracket will happily spend their money in a Starbucks or a Costa, but not drink coffee at home. The challenge in this brief is to find a way of making coffee drunk at home as appealing as coffee drunk in a coffee shop.


On second thought i have decided against this as it is rather a large brief and i don't feel i have time to complete it to a high enough standard that would be required.

competition ideas

I think as I have A LOT of animating to do with the extended practice module i need to look at competitions that aren't animation. This way i can have a break from animating but also create a wider portfolio and possibly do more live/competition briefs because animation takes a long time and I honestly don't think ill have time to do much more animating than the extended brief.

Competition entry ideas

I would quite like to do a loop de loop entry this year. The deadline for this month has just ended so I can't see the new word yet but if I feel it is a good word then I will enter. This would be needed my then end of march I assume as it is bi-monthly. This gives me a good amount of time to work on it but also gets it out of the way before my extended practice will be getting stressful.
I would like to do this because I have not had a chance to enter this before and as i am getting more confident in my practice it would be good to show it to the world and find out what they think. It also helps really think about the planning and idea so that it works with the theme and also loops seamlessly.

Oblong

So Oblong Cinema is a place in leeds that screens shorts and feature lengths with the opportunity for feedback afterward and to see what other people are up to and they are especially looking for material from Yorkshire. As far as I can see this is free. 
However it appears to be like a youth group kind of vibe which I'm not really into but I guess it might be a more comfortable place to first screen an animation before it goes out into the rest world and possibly to practicing professionals.
I think I may do this with my animation for extended practice to see what kind of reaction it gets.

The twirlywoos

So I have an interest in childrens tv animation and i enjoy watching these shows with my nieces...as research obviously ;) At christmas I asked their mum what they wanted for christmas and she said that the youngest (1 year old) loves the twirlywoos on cebeebies. I had not seen this one before so I was curious why she liked it so much... so I watched it. Well i just couldn't get over how awful it was. The story like is so repetitive and boring, almost all visual and they have stupid names. 

However, my niece likes it right? so why is this?

Well i did some research. Well for starters the characters are bright primary colours which is appealing to young children. They are also very soft looking which is very important for children that young as they find it comforting whereas they find things like plasterscine almost scary like its something they don't want to touch therefore they don't like it. 

So what about the rubbish storyline? well Anne Wood, the creator of Twirlywoos says that young children recognise movement like up, down, in, out, or empty and full like this example very early on in their development. So not only does it have appealing characters but they are doing things that the children understand or are beginning to understand, and the repetitiveness in this really helps to cement this understanding. 

This has made me feel a lot better about this animation and I now understand why young children like it. My nearly 4 year old niece says she thinks its okay but her little sister really likes it. 

This has made me realise that the thought that goes into these animations is actually quite a lot and when they are young the difference in interest is actually quite big. They're ability to follow a story isn't there at 1 but they can understand the basic things that they have learnt so far. This is probably why a lot of animations for this age range have barely any talking in them because they haven't established full language understanding. 

Barry Purves\

Started career in theatre, wanted to be an actor. 

Wrote a letter to mark hall saying how much better he can make the characters perform 

oscar wild - an is least honest when he talks as himself- give a man a mask and hell tell you the truth

super héros need alter egos to do what they wouldn't do in normal life

whenever you write a story find a device that lets the protagonist talk. like mary poppins and her umbrella

Don't think literally

Plume- about surviving- wanted it to be a ballet crossed with a  rugby scrum

textbook 3 act structure. act 1 - man who flies. wings get broken act 2- wants to fly again but someone stops him. act 3- overcomes obstacles and moves on

"eyes in animation are the most important thing you can give a puppet. you can take away his nose you can take away his ears but you can't take away his eyes."

animates everything right to left to create a geography as there is no set. should have really been left to right as that shows good things and moving forward.

uses real duck wings- has to be done through taxidermist. started off with dove wings but they were too small

cg feathers in falling scene

if you cut from a wide shot to a close up, make sure the character is in the same place in the scene 

used dragon fame

doesnt like double framing as it gives less detail.

to make a character disturbing make them blink out of sequence

movement can tell the story too. goody was fluid baddy was jagged in movement

single feather with light suggesting hope

used mirror for reflection then rippled it in post

as he goes into he water its all cg and it shows same but different and about barry embracing cg cause he was doing a stop motion in hollywood that god changed to cg

Consider everything- even the smaller thing/ gesture can contribute to your film

cut the character- "theres no point in designing a character if all it does is come on and say hello"

tchaikovsky 

wanted a piano but not having it made it more fluid. he actually playd the correct keys for the music with his hands

swan shows trauma rose shows love

colour compostitio lighting music don't be literal.

Thought bubble

I quite like mike medaglias work. I like the textures on the paper and the muted tones. I think this is something i would quite like to explore. I find this kind of style calming. I like the one year wiser things where theres lovely illustrations with nice quotes. His style is like more of a detailed cartoon and i like that. Looks like he's used water colours for his technique, possibly neatened up on photoshop. I like how its not all perfect but its still lovely. I think i can learn a lot from that.

I also liked lisa cummings, I'm pretty sure i saw her work last year too. Its lovely and vibrant and i like the use of shadow and shading on her lovely fantasy work.

I Think the marquee is always my favourite place to find things i love. For example Anadapta. Some beautiful imagery in there.I think this cover from her comic is lovely. I love the use of colour and the fact that it almost looks sparkley with the lighting choices!

Then of course theres Des Taylor who i found last year and bought his comic. I still really like him and we follow each other on instagram. I do like how he draws women and his whole style. I also really like how he does his photographic style back grounds i think it gives his images so much depth! I also like that in Katie Rogers although she's really pretty and girly he's not afraid to make her pull funny faces and do embarrassing things. It makes her feel more real! But still in a beautiful pin up style.

I quite like Emma Viacelis work. The best way i can describe it is like westernised manga/ anime. Maybe mixed with a bit of fashion art? Either way this is something I really like. I think this is a style I would like to explore. The line work seems nice and free but still with purpose. You can feel the movement and it feels more like a moment captured by a camera than a thought out drawing. 

Thought bubble

Yesterday I went to thought bubble. I attended the writers round table where Marguerite Bennett, Ray Fawkes, Emi Lenox, Charles Soule and Kurtis Wiebe spoke about their experiences writing comics. I liked that they all said that they loved their jobs and they're not in it for the money. They also mentioned how they got into writing and who was they're mentor. Marguerite was interesting as her mentor was her professor that had read one of her stories and liked it. Some time later he called her up saying he still thinks about her stories and said if she really wanted to go for it he thinks it would do well so she did and how she writes for DC!! I also found Emi quite funny and interesting. She writes an auto biography blog kind of thing called Emi town and is quite successful. She is a visual thinker so she writes her stories in pictures and writes a few words to go with them. I have recently read some of these and i actually really like them. I like her drawing style too. Its very cartoony but i like how she uses just two colours usually one colour with white for like the highlights and things. It works really well and looks nice and simple and clean. I feal like i can relate to a lot of things she writes about too which is nice. After reading quite a lot on the blog i feel i would quite like to read the book. 
They were saying they would like to see more horror comics but I think Emi disagreed as when she tried to read____ with the spirals she couldn't finish the book and literally put it across the other side of the room! I also like how when asked the question like do you change what you write to please your audience, Im pretty sure they all said no. They write for themselves. Emil said no because its supposed to be about her life so why would she lie.
I really wanted to attend sketching spotlight but unfortunately i had to work at this time. I have seen photos though and thought it was awesome. I think i will ask to see videos and things that my friends have done as i did really want to see it.

I really enjoyed seeing all the cosplay at the event. My favourite was a girl that was dressed as someone from Harry Potter and she had a REAL OWL with her! it was so cool and she let it fly around the room a few times too. Unfortunately it kept pooping on the floor though... 

Ainimation awards- leeds film festival

Today I went to the animation awards held in the everyman cinema (with lovely sofa seats) It was an interesting experience thats for sure. Although there was lots of lovely animation..there seemed to be an overwhelming theme of death :S
The Master was the first one we saw. I thought the animation was just lovely, if I'm correct it was stop motion. The textures on the puppets were lovely and the dog seemed so real in its movements. It was about a dog and a monkey who were living in a house and waiting for their owner to return...the owner never came. The monkey escaped the cage and started acing a little bit human. Then he hit the dog with a fire poker thing which i thought was cruel but they made up. Then it took a graphic turn. The monkey got drunk, found a gun and shot them both!!...Whaaaaa? Then right at the end it said "dedicated to my mum" I was like....mummy issues? was that a hint that his mum left or was it him trying to be nice...?

Next up was Emila and Duarte. This was pretty cool. It was pixillation and it was about a couple who broke up and there was this entire room full of boxes and inside the boxes was all the stuff from couple that had broken up. Strange but nice. At least they didn't kill each other...

Next was Haircut. Just...what...? I didn't really like the drawing style but i did like the way they moved the hands i thought that looked good. So It was about a girl with short hair who cuts off the plait of a girl with long hair. The plait appears to be alive. Then they take the hair bobble out and all the strands of hair run away. Then we see another girl with the same plait and she just walks off...I'm guessing there was some kind of underlying message but i can't for the life of me figure it out!

ManOMan was quite funny. Use of puppets again but more obviously puppets which was funny when one of the characters used someones hand sticks to slap himself in the face. It was about lots of angry people then a guy sicked up another littler version of himself who was angrier than the original who was not. The little guy thought the big guy how to live a little and be a bit angry. Then he pushed a guy in front of a train. Then he jumped off a building. Yep. More death.

Paradox was about a man who starting sprouting grass. he tried to get it off but it came back then he grew a tree and it hurt then there was stuff growing all over him until he became a mound of nature and it died. I think theres a message in there too...I think.

I really like Air-Mail. It was in like a cut out kind of style and a cat kept trying to eat a fish but the owner wouldn't let him. And then he tried to eat the bird who was made out of an envelope. Then the owner of the cat fell in love with the owner of the fish. It doesn't seem like much story when i try to tell it back but it was cute and funny and seemed more constructed when you actually watch it.

Wellington Jr. Well that was an animation and a half....Creepy faces but lovely scenery. bit of stop motion and claymation in there. The story was about a boy who came of age and in this place when someone comes of age they go hunting and wear their preys head as a hat. So these boys went with their dads and the main boy wasn't doing very well. all of the other boys were wearing their hats. They were out all night hunting when the boy finally killed what looked like a moose. So his hat was going to be the best one ever. They took the moose back and just before they entered the cave the dad put the head on his head instead. The boy was mortified and shot his dad. You guessed it. More death. I actually quite liked the story up until that point.

In the distance Was nice. A little simple 2d animation with no change in camera angle or anything which worked really well in this. It was a man and his chicken living in a house many miles up in the air. It was during the war so planes were coming over a lot. I think it was funny when a man climbed a ladder to his house, was out of puff and the ladder didn't reach. He came back another day with a longer ladder and the house owner just kicked the ladder down once the army man got to the top. He didn't seem to care. Then bombs came on his house and cause minor damage. His chicken died. And then all of a sudden he unrolled a ladder and walked down it. The end. Another one i didn't understand its ending.

Autumn was next. Not really my style of animation it was a bit wishy washy in the drawings. I think this was about mental illness possibly? like the lady got letter and she was like that person isn't here anymore. Then things went a bit sad and she drown in a pool of water but that wasn't real. Then she was collecting red leaves cause her friend said ill come when the leaves turn red. Then there was a knock at the door but she didn't answer. So i think the letter was addressed to her. 

So all in all quite a confusing murderous evening. It was good to see what people have been up to all over the world but i just came away with a sense of....whaaaaa? 

PPP3

OUAN 602 

Deadline-19th May 2016 2pm

Don't be a dick

If you annoy one person it'll get out and you will not get employes. Animation is a small industry and word spreads.

-Research blog- who should you talk to, where are they, are you happy to move?
-Develop relationships with practitioners
-Engage- develop portfolio, enter competitions
-Planning- Plan of action/ critical report. What are you going to do, when will you leave, how?
-Position- sell yourself, good cv, good media presence
-Look at placements, work experience etc

-1 Blog post a week
-New ways of working
-Competitions live briefs, work in teams at least 1 entry
-12 month action plan, focus on goals.
-What else do you need to learn?
-Childrens media conference- sheffield if interested in working in child entertainment
-Have everything you need to promote yourself e.g.. cv, business card, blog/website, showreel, portfolio.

PDF of blog, evidence that you have engaged and done something. 2000 word report, showreel and other appropriate marketing materials