Project Final Animation

For my final animation I chose to use coloured paper because I felt after having made different sculptures of the frog the green one seemed to have more life and that is what I was looking for in my animation. I took several images and having learnt from my previous attempts I needed to make sure I took more pictures than before to ensure the animation was smooth. This process took a really long amount of time and the main challenge I faced was making the frog jump. To do this I held the frog and took pictures of it in the air. However when comming down the stairs I found it would be too difficult to do the same so I changed the angle and took pictures of the frog on each stair step. Overall I am pleased with my final outcome as I managed to bring life to a piece of paper which is what I intended however to improve I believe I could perhaps use a better quality camera and I could be more consistent in terms of the zooming of my images. I learnt several skills from completing the project one of them was making origami sculptures. Although I had previous knowledge I had to research the art and experiment with different sculptures. Another skill I learnt musically was minimalistic improvisation. Although I already knew how to improvise successfully I incorporated my learnt skills of minimalistic music and composed a piece of music that was fit for purpose in terms of the animation. Finally I learnt a lot more about animating in particular the problems animators face when animating and I have learnt to appreciate animations more as I now know the large amounts of time taken to produce an overall product.

I tried animating my frog at school and had around 2 hours to get every single photo done. Taking that into consideration my first attempt was not as good as I imagined it would have been. I found the whole animation process really hard and the draft looked really rough. As well as this the animation itself was dull and not much happened. However I did learn some important lessons whilst doing my first attempt and that was that I must include every single detailed movement in the animation. The part of the animation where the paper folds itself looked rough because not every movement was documented so for the final animation I must make sure that this part of the animation looks smooth and captures every bit of the folding methods. After talking with Ms Stower I also figured out that changing the angles of the shots would add variety to the overall animation and make it more interesting.

Origami Experimentation

I experimented with some artificial lighting and found this worked a lot better than the room's lighting. I liked the way the black paper added a contrast to the white paper from the frog. Black and white is a simplistic idea so I am considering just using plain white paper to keep the simplicity the images above captured.

Japanese Experiment 2

I made two Asian-style improvisations because I wanted to test out different instruments. With the piano used in this one it sounded a bit out of place because pianos would rarely be used in traditional Japanese music. Nevertheless I wanted to test this instrument out because it sustained the notes fairly well unlike the guitar. It also gave a really different mood with the guitar the sound was more detached and staccato like however on the piano it was very legato and smooth.

Looking at music genres and types I came across a special type of improvisation which involves in only playing the black notes on the keyboard. This gives the piece of music an Asian sound to it. This whole piece was an improvisation experiment however it had a beginning middle and end and was structure accordingly to a relaxed mood I wanted to create. There wasn't really a pulse or beat to the music as Japanese style music usually doesn't follow a rhythm and it is impossible to clap the pulse.

Minimalist Improvisation Experiment

Whilst experimenting with minimalistic music I improvised a short piece incorporating all the aspects of minimalistic music. For example I repeated a pattern over and over again and i tried to create a hypnotic mood. This piece was improvised meaning there was no planning behind it and literally means making it up as you go along. However I had my background knowledge of minimalistic music for my improvisation so it helped me knowing what to do next and i roughly tested the chords to see if they would work in harmony with one another.

I researched into origami art from looking at my Japanese Samurai helmet. It originated in Japan in the 17th century and has been popularized in modern culture. It is very simplistic in comparison to other art forms and requires only a piece of paper and some folding.

Minimalist Music

I research a very unusual style of music called 'minimalist music'. It's a style which focuses on repeating patterns which creates a hypnotic-like mood. I found this to be fitting with my final project as they are both very simplistic but at the same time are an art because of it. Minimalist music is very repetitive and follows a pulse, a rhythm, unlike traditional music which uses melodies. It consists of patterns that change over time making the listener think about the overall piece as one big image rather than individual parts.

Scott Choplin - Jazz/Rag Composer

For my music inspiration I decided to look at a famous composer called Scott Choplin who famously composed 'The Entertainer'' and 'Maple Leaf Rag'. I found his style to be particular fascinating as it is so distinctive and unique that it makes him one of the best Rag/Jazz composers of all time. I hope to capture his style in my stop motion animation.

Memories Brainstorm

I started by comming up with questions on what a memory is then I proceded to link these questions with my chosen item. For example I wondered if the real meaning behind my item was forgotten or was it simply passed on through generations.

Pitt Rivers Trip

The museum
Last week our Diploma group visited Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford in order to gain inspiration for our projects, as well as get an idea of memories through time.
During our visit to the Pitt Rivers museum we were given various tasks. The beginning task involved in us getting into groups and then each group was given an item that they must look around the museum in order to answer questions such as where it came from and what it was used for. I enjoyed this activity as it required me and my team to think outside the box and not necessarily look for the obvious but for the little minor details that made the object special to a certain group of people.


Our next activity was to look around the museum and search for three items that caught our attention and then we needed to draw or take a series of photographs of these. I looked around for a while and then found - A samurai helmet, a samurai sword and a pistol. I really liked the samurai section as I liked the idea of a culture that was so against cowardness and giving up that a lot of their equipment revolved around this ideology.

The reason I chose to pick a sword-although predictable of me- was that not only did it hold the memories of who owned it but also the memories of the people that were killed by it and I found this fascinating. I chose the pistol because I found out from reading what was written next to it that it was intended to be used in a James Bond film, however because it looked so feminine it was replaced with a bigger model; it struck me why the film makers wouldn't want the gun to look feminine then i read that the film was shot during the Cold War and America wanted to portray itself as powerful as it could.

After finding three items we then had to pick one of the three items and oserve it in detail. I chose the samurai helmet because it was the item that I felt held the most significant value out of the other 2. Not only was it used for protection (as one would guess by just looking at it) but it was also used as a form of art. The more artistic a samurai you were the more fancy-looking your helmet would have been and the more you would have been respected. The colours used to decorate the helmet are also a key - only one colour would be used as the word for two colours 'ni-ke' sounded a lot like the verb 'to flee' and any connection to cowardness was regarded as weakness. Lastly there was an adornment on my chosen helmet and I read that if a samurai disrespected the emperor then they would have this adornment taken of their helmet and armour to show that they've been disowned and would therefore be looked down at in battle
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What I learnt
During the trip the most important thing I learnt was how a single object could hold the memories of an entire culture. I learnt how an object could be interpreted in many different ways and could mean different things to different people yet the object stays the same. This has inspired me for my project as it allows me to explore different options regarding the use of different objects and the different meanings they can have.