Isobel Wilson’s Animation Blog

I have been working with a second year student to assist on her graduate film. One of the things I was asked to do was create some animations of fish for Sophie’s opening scene. The film is set in an aquarium so the fish are featured right at the beginning. I took on this role as I have an interest in marine life and having never animated fish I wanted the challenge.

Above is the image references I sent to Sophie to show her the kind of fish I wanted to use for the scene. She understand the references I used and allowed me to do what I wanted for the animations.

References for movement and animation

There are some beautiful shots of fish and marine life moving in the opening scenes of Ponyo. I used this and my own reference footage taken from my dives.

As a scuba diver I have a keen interest in marine life and have been able to capture my footage of my dives over the years. I used these ones specifically to help me with my work these past two weeks.

Animation tests

Above you can see some of my tests layered up on top of each other to create the aquarium scene that Sophie requested. I wanted to showcase a variety of fish moving in different ways for the background. The main thing Sophie requested was a manta ray which I made to be the focal point. As I was asked to create tests, I was able to keep them rough and loose. I think the tests ended up being quite successful as Sophie seemed to like them.

Here are more tests that I did for Sophie.

Overall I really enjoyed working on these fish and I think I was bale to learn a lot by creating these short clips focusing on different types of fish. I am looking forward to seeing how they look in the end product of the film.

Twin’s Paradise a 2020 short film, about twin tennis stars Darcy and Marcy struggle with their inner demons on the eve of a big championship. Victoria Vincent, the director has such a unique animation style that this film always sticks out in my mind. It’s a trip into the mind of these two very different and very troubled characters. The film covers a variety of taboo topics and heavy themes.

The visuals

For a film about such heavy topics, the visuals are a complete 180 of what you expect. I think by having such bright, colourful and eye catching colours and animation alongside these heartbreaking story lines you feel even more unsettled about what you are watching. The character and set designs are excellent. They tell a story about the characters before you even get to know them through the films.

The characters

Darcy and Marcy are the main characters and we follow them in the different ways they handle grief after the passing of their mother. The sisters have contrasting personalities which we see at the beginning of the film but the main thing that sets them apart is how they deal with their mother death. Marcy channels her feelings into practicing almost excessively, we see her inner monologue through the angel and devil on her shoulder. She usually leans into the devils advice, leading to violent outbursts. Darcy however is on some kind of medication for her disturbing thoughts, this medication sends her into a bright world which she sees as a paradise, where she can see her mother again. She grows very dependent on this medication eventually leading to her overdosing. It is only when both the girls are in the hospital, missing the tennis championships that Darcy realises that they have been so caught up with their own inner problems they didn’t realise the world was actually ending. Marcy must fight her own inner demons to learn to let go of her failures. The two sisters are very different in their personalities but their grief is two sides of the same coin.

This film is about grief and trauma, it’s about loneliness and depression and about the harmful coping mechanisms people take on to cope. But mostly it’s about craving this idealistic escape where you can just forget. In this case escapism is achieved through destructive tendencies. In the end, we the audience realise that they both used different methods of escapism to isolate themselves, until the end of the world where everything stopped, along with the music and he bright visuals where the girls and the audience were finally forced to face the reality of their situation. That they weren’t truly alone as they still had each other, someone who knew exactly what they were going through.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film, the animation is simple in its style but really helped to tell this dark story.

Yesterday I visited the David Hockney exhibit at Lightroom as it was very close to the studios. I am a big fan of Hockney and when I was in high school and learning about art for the first time he was so inspiring to me.

I found the exhibition very interesting, it really showed the full variety and scope of Hockneys work over the past number of decades in a new way. There were animated segments that I didn’t know he’d done previously. I had a great time at the exhibit sketching people who were watching the screens. Below is a TikTok of both a couple scenes from the exhibit and my sketches.

Below are the sketches I did as observational work. I really enjoy doing observational work and if find that I can learn a lot about the human body and movement from this type of work.

We are creating two lip syncs this term. The first being a lip sync which we recorded the audio for in the film and tv studios. We paired up with another student who didn’t speak the same language. This is because it’s often easier to understand the noises made for a lip sync rather than the words themselves.

In the end, I found that I agreed with this. I think having done this assignment in this way I will probably take it on in a similar way.

Sketches for the character design

Audio translation/ mouth shape breakdown

This was probably the most difficult part of the exercise but once it was finished it was easy to place the mouth shapes on the animation afterwards.

Thumbnails

These were the initial sketches I did for the key poses. I knew what I wanted the character do very early on but struggled with how to properly link each pose to each other in a way that felt natural.

Key frames with audio

I don’t have any footage from the very early stages of animating this project, however here is a clip from the 1st round of animating. As you can see, I changed some of the poses and movements later on. This is because the movements didn’t gel well with the animation as a whole and as didn’t match up with the audio as well. It was important to match these up well as the audio is the most important thing in a lip sync.

Here is another version with breakdowns, a little bit of in-betweening and some different and better poses. I felt a bit more confident with this version as I think it flows a bit better.

And finally, the final animation. I think I could continue to work on this and make it smoother and fiddle with the timing a bit more but as we only needed to submit rougher bits of work this term then I feel pleased with what I was able to create.

This term we were asked to create a number of new animation exercises meant to test our understanding of movement, timing and all the animation principles.

Character choice – Mimi – Kaori Watanabe

I chose to animate Kaori’s character design as I designed a human character for this assignment so wanted to use a non- human character to animate. I love Kaori’s whimsical style and the way she does her line art.

Reference footage

Again, I always struggle with the filming of my own reference footage, as I don’t feel confidence as an actor. I’m getting a bit better with practice but still have a long way to go! But here is the footage I’m using for the body acting animation.

Below I’ve attached my initial sketches from my sketchbook of the concept. I tried to keep them loose and filled with movement.

1st pass

Final Animation

After quite a few revisions, this is the version I will be uploading for submission.

Whilst at uni this term we watched O’ Black Hole three times as part of different units as they used it as examples for good characters, amazing design and narrative storytelling. Having seen it a couple of times now and enjoying it each time, I wanted to create a review of this film.

The film follows our main character Singularity, as she tries to make her way to the very top of the black hole to free everyone trapped inside by the woman who couldn’t accept the deaths of those around her.

The Story

For me the story is the most interesting part of this film, it follows the idea of the heroes journey to a t. Having Singularity wake up, have a call to adventure, follow through the various challenges and decisions that must be made, making what she believes to be the wrong decision and then the revelation of how she will save everyone at the end. I think having followed this chart, Renee Zhan, the creator, was able to make a fulfilling story for audiences to engage with.

The Colours

Another aspect of the film that stuck out me when watching was the colour choices Zhan used. They were so vivid and created a truly magically and otherworldly feel to film. The lighting is so dramatic and I think this also helps to create the atmosphere of each layer of the black hole from the very bottom where death and decay reside up to very top where her family members stay in perpetual loop.

Textures

Zhan used a variety of different animation textures on this film. From the clay stop motion, modern 3d animation to the traditional charcoal animation. Having such a variety in animation in one project is sometimes difficult to pull off, however it is perfectly melding in this film. Each of them representing another layer of death and time in the black hole. I also think making the choice to have the woman animated in such a different way really stands out. It helps the audiences understand both how otherworldly she is, and how she has taken almost everything from the world. The stark textured background of the paper really portraits this.

Music/sound

With every rewatch I grow a further appreciation for the cast of voice actors in this film and the beautiful sound track. These are elements which are obviously not visual but are no less important than the animation itself. The inclusion of a fitting soundtrack can make or break a project in my opinion. The voice actors stuck out to me particularly the characters of death and decay, they were really able to sell their characters being so slimy and horrid through the voice actors work.

Pacing and ending

The pacing of the film works very well. Having three main arcs to the narrative and a journey for the protagonist to go on really helps the audience understand where they are being taken and what is expected next.

“O Black Hole!” is a fable about holding onto what you love too tightly. Its vivid claymation and paintings add up to several metaphors about appreciating the ephemeral and accepting the inevitability of death. It’s about learning to let go.

This week is reading week, so I’ve been busy trying to catch up on all the edits I needed to make to my assignments. I had a lot of feedback from the formative assessment in December and all through January, I was working to make some small edits to them. Over the past week I was able to get them approved or get further feedback to perfect them for the summative assessment in March.

It’s been great to have had my work looked over by the tutors and to receive so much detailed feedback to improve my work. I feel as though I’ve learnt a lot this week alone about the importance of timing and allowing the audience time to comprehend what they’re watching. Having these pauses included in my animation is

Here are some examples of the changes I’ve made this week with the timing being the key change:

Another example of this is in my bouncing character animation, the motion of the dog is correct but there were some unnecessary frames and the dogs mouth didn’t match up with the movement in the dogs ears.

As you can see, the changes are slight but make a huge difference to the overall animation.

I will continue to work on these and my other assignments over this next week and try to finish them all in time for the start of the simulated work experience and our work with the second years.

Overall I’m pleased with my progress this term so far, and I’m excited to see what the course brings us next.

This week we were working on the facial acting exercise as part of the end of term submissions. Compared to last weeks body acting exercise this is entirely focused on the facial expressions and how the movement matches those. I think it is sure to be a difficult challenge but one that will make us better animators.

Below are the initial sketches I made in my sketchbook regarding the main poses that this character would be going through for this exercise. As you can see they are very rough and hold a lot of movement. This movement as something I tried to hold onto throughout the process of animating this exercise. As I think I struggle with having flat and lifeless drawings in my animation. Something I need to work on for sure!

Next we captured our own reference footage to work out how we would act and to sketch out the key frame thumbnails. Below are my attempts at reference footage. I still haven’t quite mastered the art of acting and am quite uncomfortable in front of the camera but I guess that will come with time.

Thumbnails!

After this, I was able to create some mock ups of the thumbnails I would use for the key frames. I usually do this in my sketchbook or on my iPad in Procreate as I prefer the brushes in there to other programs.

Once I had added the breakdowns and worked on the timing, I had my first pass of animation. I got this reviewed and critiqued by my tutors and was able to refine the animation and timing even further. I learnt a lot during this time as my eye for timing still needs a lot of work but has definitely improved!

Below is the final animation for this exercise, I think it still needs some work and could be further refined but at this moment in time I am not sure I am at the level where I truly understand the corrections needed. I think if I revisit this exercise next year or even next term I might be closer to that point. but until that point I think it serves a purpose.

Having made about 5 different examples for this exercise and getting different feedback (both good and bad), I decided to fully start again and take all the feedback I received into consideration and create a new one. I focused on using loose lines and resisted the urge to clean up and add colour.

I am pleased with the outcome and feel like I’m understanding the principles that come into this type of animation better each time. I am looking forward to trying to animate more animals in the future!

Today we got the chance to have a workshop/induction into how to use the audio booths and software to record high quality sounds for our films. This was a really interesting experience as it was something I’ve been curious about since starting and wanting to make some films outside of uni work.

I will be making use this opportunity in the near future I think. As I have some plans for some side projects that I will need to narrate some vocals for.