Final Video - A Journey through the Peak District

So here it is, the final animation. I am working on making the quality better.

Working method

Fine liner  colour palette

The fine liners below make up the colour palette that I used in the drawings

 Light box set up - paper laid over the photographs

Once the drawings are done, I used colour pencils to create textures to amalgamate with the drawings

glossop panning view tester

This is another tester that I did to explore using the panning tool in after effects. I would have liked to have used the write on tool m this particular image, but it would have too time consuming in the time available.

First render

Here is the first renders of a more finished looking animation. There are a few tweaks and changes I need to make, but they can be easily resolved. I still need to sort the sound effects out.

How did it go?

Overall I have felt quite disheartened towards the end of the convergence/divergence project. Time and technology have both been an issue in different ways.

After effects is a program, that has endless possiblities providing you have the skills to use it. However, I think I was far more concerned with how I was going to get the intend of my learning agreement across in my screen based animation rather than realising the potential of after effects. It was only when I came across the 'write on' tool  a couple pf weeks ago that I realised this was the way forward for my animation. - the ability to make my drawings appear as though this is how you see the landscape. Although now, I don't think the message really comes across as well as I would have liked.

By the time I had realised what my animation was going to look like, it was almost to late to start and do what I really wanted to do. At the beginning of the project I was enthusiastic about the project, but as time went on, I felt that the idea had become stale in my mind. Ideally, I would have like to have spent more time working on the animation and utilising more of my initial ideas that I just didn't have time to do.

Although this has not been a strong project for me, I do feel as though I have got the hang of after effects a bit better to utilise drawing in my work through the idea of 'moving focus' in a screen based form.

snake pass

Here is the snake pass write on test. I will eventually overlay onto the brown paper and apply a camera to the image.

first edit of beginning and film overlayed

Above is the tester video with the beginning section and film over layed  onto the brown paper. The video quality is not great, but I it doesn't hinder the effect that I wanted to capture.

mam'tor sign test

An animation tester of a write on effect image i've been working on. As the image is too small for the dimensions of the animation screen. I will have to take another look at how to make this image work in the animaiton

glossop test

Glossop sign write on test with write on effects

Drawing test - write on

The short clip above is an animation tester, that I have been working on in after effects using the 'write on' to animate my drawings as oppose to just masking them out. It is a similar process to stop frame animation, as the frames that make up a drawing appear every other frame (12fr/s).

title for animation

The video above is how I am going to start my animation. The map face looks quite authentic and adds to the rugged look of the animation. Although, I still need to sort the timing out and take out some of the long gaps that are currently appearing.

Video Edit Snippets

This is the edit that I have edited from the previously posted 15 minute film. It summarises the general journey that I went on.

The video above, is the edit that I amalgamated and edited.

Drawn images

Open publication - Free publishing
Here are the images compiled from images I took from the journey. At first glance, they appear to be quite abstract, but collaged together, I think that they could be animated in a way that  would complement their simpleness.

Sheep rotobrush

The clip above has made use of the 'rotobrush' tool in after effects. I do like the aesthetics of this tool, but it is a time consuming process that I  don't want to take any further, as it doesn't communicate what I want to say effectively enough.

Window sequence - possible opening scene

plane flying over

Experimentation with collaged photos

Panning of Drawing

Experimenting with drawing

Below are some images that I have traced from my photos. I still don't think these images can work in an animation like this as they don't have any clarity and look too messy. It was also very differcult to make the marks with the colour pencil, as they constantly needed sharpening and I did not enjoy the process. However, I think coloured fine liners might work.

The Journey

Below is the approximate route that I took on my journey in the Peak District

Composition images

Here are the selection of images that I think best summarise my journey in the Peak District. Some of the images have been pasted together so that they can be panned using the after effects camera.

Open publication - Free publishing - More nature

Cuckoo's Nest Penguin competition

 Final Design of the book cover

2 design

1st design

Aphex Twin 'Rhubarb' acoustic soundtrack

This track by Aphex Twin really enforces the ambient mood and tone that I am trying to create. It is quite a simple calming sound that progresses over a short period of time. I have also created sound effects that I think will compliment the soundtrack.

Map Scans

My uncle kindly lent me a map of the Peak District area to help me to document my journey. I have then scanned in the important areas and the areas that we visited. I hope to use these map scans to co-ordinate a coherent visual journey and to help visualise the 'moving focus' of the journey. The lines on the map visually explain the construction of the landscape from a bird's eye point of view. It would be logical to use the camera tool in aftereffects to pan through and highlight certain areas of the map.

 I quite like the generic look of the typeface for the peak district (above), and is used consistently in maps. I will perhaps use a variation of this typeface in my animation somehow.

 Glossop is where the journey starts and ends, so I feel it is quite important to make reference to this, as well as the date I took this journey (8th March 2012 13:30-4:30)

 High Peak is the highest point in the Peak district as the name suggests. On the day I went on this journey, the weather was too bad to access this point of the Peak, but I think it would still be interesting to reference it.

Above is the scan of the front of the map, which I quite like as has quite a rough an rugged feel about it, which is also associated with look of the Peak district landscape. I intend to use aspects of the front cover for the animation opening.

This is an acrylic painting that I did in the art workshop in Padfield. I think the darks and the lights of the sky have been captured well.

Kate Miller - Collaged Landscape

I particularly like this editorial image by Kate Miller, that I found in the Sunday times. Miller's combination of  coloured textures, drawn imagery and collage allows for this image to be eye catching and vibrant. Despite the fact that this image is not true to the real welsh landscape, it still manages to convey an essence of what the atmosphere is like and gives light to the sort of things you might do in the area.

Julien Grey - 'Forgetfulness'

I like this animation by Julien Grey particularly  for its simpleness. The of shape and colour have allowed the piece to flow as a whole. The hand made aspect of this animation is also quite effective, as it gives a sense of directness that the viewer can relate to.

My favourite elements are they maps, lines and birds, which have used clever animation devices that allow the animation to flow. My work currently is not doing this, as I have been far too focused on the different potential ideas. I need to decide what I am going to show and realise how I am going to show it.

Swiss Zine - Lo Straniero

Firstly, I would like to say that this is not my work, but I have found it very inspiring to look at. I found this zine at a comic book convention in Switzerland over Easter, and have taken the liberty to scan some of the pages in. I like that each page makes use of the negative space, and uses quite crude drawings and a minimal amount of mark making to convey the narrative. Hence the there is no need for text.

Open publication - Free publishing - More mountain

story board of edited film

Here is a rough story board of some of the most poignant  stills from the film that I have edited together from the rough footage I took of the Peak District. It forms the basis of the journey that I experienced on a particular day whilst I was in the Peak district. The main elements focus on the way in which the weather changed an the impact this had on the landscape. I noticed in particular the way in which the weather caused the lighting to changed and the physical aspects on this such as the noise of the rain hitting the windscreen and the sound of the wind captured when exposed the environment. 

I now need to find a way to integrate the drawings,  film footage and sound to create the essence of this journey that I experienced.

Below are some of the same images highlighted in colour just to see what they look like. I don't think colour pencil alone can work with these images as the definition of the image is lost. 

During the easter break, I was lucky enough to get the chance to go to Switzerland, hence I took a sketch book to try and capture the some of the beautiful landscapes. Here are two of my favourite ones. It is apparent to me, that I like to use colour and linear mark making. I aim to capture the essence of what I see and highlight certain aspects, as it is not possible to see everything in your line of vision. What you look at in that moment is what you see.

 The view from Patrick's garden...

The lake in Nyon...

Bill Viola talks about his childhood landscape building techniques...

And you did drawings ten feet long as a child didn't you?

Yeah, I invented this planet that was inhabited by humans and of course aliens, I forget the name of it... oh it was called "Clamph" and I started drawing the landscape of it, in a kind of a horizontal almost oriental scroll like way, and I kept adding with sticky tape more and more sheets of paper, until I was out at about ten feet and then I had the great idea, if I do say so myself, to end the landscape on the final sheet and make it identical with the beginning of the landscape on the first sheet and I wrapped them around and put the last piece of tape together.

Bill Viola.


I found this excerpt from an interview where he spoke about the use landscape and its horizontal appearance

the light

One of the main things that I noticed about the Peak district, it is rapid change in weather over a period of hours. The photo montage above depicts the lighting in the sky at one point in the day, where the it had started to rain. I took a series of photographs to try to and capture the essence of the entirety of the scene.

David Hockney Exhibition

On Friday, I visited David Hockney's exhibition at the royal academy. I was in awe of his vast array of paintings. It was very different to see the paintings of landscapes in the flesh, as I found them very striking and they almost imposed their presence, which was helped by their sheer size.

The use of colour and line in his paintings indicate the change of season, light and time and when the paintings are seen in series, it is very clear to notice these changes. They seeming create a narrative. -They show a sense of a journey.

His vigour to capture a the essence of particular areas in the Yorkshire area has meant that he has had to look at what is in front of him and understand what he is seeing. The depiction of colour is particularly striking as there is an abundance of bright colours which are not typically associated with the type of landscapes found in Yorkshire.

Michael Dudok De Wit

This animation by Dudok De Wit uses 'lyrical lines' and simply drawn characters, which express the landscape, as he has always been inspired by the 'clean line' (mainly from Herge's comic books). He states that the clean line 'seeks suggestion and meaning in its purity'.

He sees the layouts and visual compositions as movements. When he draws landscapes, he visualises the lines and shapes that show the directions and dynamics.

In an animated film, all these interesting movements; the moments created by dynamic lines in each landscape, by the animation of the characters, by the transitions from one landscape to another provide a poetic quality, that help to make the narrative clearer.

I particularly like how DDW. has used the same landscapes throughout the animation, which I think creates a consistencey and stresses a sense of time passing, strengthens the narrative.

glossop map tester

I created this short animation of the map of Glossop, in hope that it would aid the transitions of the animation and give an indication to the viewer of where the film was taking place. In reality, I don't think the map was clear enough, and it didn't really add anything to the film.

The laughing Badger

During my research weak while I was at the Peak district, interviewed a local artist (Sean Wood) who runs a local art workshop every week, one for both adults and children. I asked him about the Peak district landscape. The peak district weather is well known for being flippant and it is possible to get sun, rain, hale and snow all in one afternoon. It is for this reason that Sean likes to describe the Peak as 'The Big Sky!' He keeps a camera at arms reach in his studio so that when he wants to capture the landscape, he can immediately.

His words of advice advice for were:-

• If you're trying to capture a landscape, do a series of drawings, paintings etc...
• The landscape is about shape and colour and form, and it is always changing and this is one of the main characteristics of the Peak that attracts people tp it

The image below is one of Sean's paintings, which I think has really captured the essence of the landscape well, with regard to the dark grey colours and textures from the acrylic paint that he has used. Everyone sees things differently, so painting something in your style correlates to how you see and understand what is in front of you.

I did record an interview with Sean, but the quality of the recording isn't great, but here are some of the things  he said:

''Anything can spark your imagination, -I like the notion of little vignettes. Like for example, there might be a big scene of something, but you might notice some little bit in it that will inspire you - just little details.''

''Like I was saying about Breugel earlier, if you look at his stuff, you could make 100 images out of one of his paintings"

Katy Dove Melodia, 2002

This is an animation by the Scottish artist Katy Dove. She has used an ambient soundtrack to emulate the atmospheric presence that the landscape in her animation has. The landscape is in fact an existing painting that she has animated over. Her animations often start from a process of free associative drawing that she calls 'automatic drawing'.

''Dove’s interest in how film and animation foreground a temporal rather than solely visual relationship with the viewer, and in doing so, ‘embrace the increasing temporalisation of the image which has shaped modern visual practice from the invention of cinema to the spread of the Internet''

http://www.axisweb.org/ofSARF.aspx?SELECTIONID=60

bird fight - sound effects

Today Robin, Leanne and I created sound effects for the section in David Attenborough's nature documentary for the mating dance for some tropical birds. We used Robin's banjo playing, keys, bells, drums and the human voice, which we then manipulated with an adobe audio program. We then synced the recordings in time to the video clip. I think it was quite successful!

Concertina Sketch Book

Here is a link to the concertina images I drew from the Peak District. The media used was pencil, watercolour and acrylic. These drawings will help to form the basis of the animation in terms of how the concertina sketchbook acts like a moving canvas that can be viewed in terms of the moving focus.

Open publication - Free publishing - More landscape

Zarina Bhimji - Whitechapel exhibition

http://www.zarinabhimji.com/dspseries/18/1FW.htm

This weekend, I got the chance to see Zarina Bhimji's exhibition at the Whitechapel gallery in london. She primarily works with photography One of the feature pieces was a film entitled 'Yellow Patch'. It was shot on location in Mumbai, Kutch and Gujarat using 35mm colour film. She focused mainly on the landscapes and interiors, and has created a poetic and evocative exploration of place. Within Yellow Patch it is evident to see the artist's interest of light, space, and attention to detail.

She has created her own sound effects to complement the film in a subtle way, which I consider to be extremely effective. She uses slow panning shots that slowly and smoothly glide through the landscape to create an atmosphere, and it it is almost as though the viewer is going on and tracing an actual journey.

research is important to her and she often asks herself questions before she makes her work to try and find out what she's trying to say.

So here is my synopsis of Study...It still feels a bit vague as to what I am doing, but as it is an experiential journey that will make these doubts clear.

Synopsis of Study

“There is never a moment where we stop to look at something, and our eyes never stop moving, because otherwise we’d be dead. We move the focus every time we move.’’ This is known the ‘Principle of moving focus.’ (Hockney, D. 2009)

Within my illustration practice, it is important to me that I am always learning new skills whilst keeping up with new technologies because we live in an era where technology changes at a rapid pace. For this unit, I would like the main focus to be about drawing because after evaluating my technical skills, it is apparent to me that I have a weakness for drawing in 'the background'. The imagery I create seems to hang in the middle of the page without a sense of belonging. Therefore to improve my skills I would like to create a screen based animation where the main focus would be about the landscape itself.

Previously in my work, I have developed film montage techniques involving stop frame animation, film and timelapse. I would very much like to expand upon these skills and find new ways to explore these techniques whilst incorporating drawing, as more and more I am using moving imagery in my practice.

In terms of the brief, I am going to explore the divergence of a visual and experiential journey from the northern industrious landscape to the natural landscape of the Peak District in the Derbyshire area.

I would like my animation to be emotive and thought provoking, and stress the point that a lot of the time we never stop to really look at what is in front of us. E.g. when we’re driving in our cars or in a rush to get to a destination, we generally focus solely on the task in hand. I aim to target this screen-based animation towards those whom may have busy lifestyles, and wouldn’t necessarily take the time to look around and question what it is they are seeing and how they are seeing.

In terms of where the animation would be viewed, it would make sense for it to be viewed in a place considered to be busy e.g. on the wall or floor of a busy highstreet. This would help to create a contrast between a busy environment and a that of the Peak District.

In the book ‘The art of seeing’ Berger states; “We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled and the way we see things is affected by what we know or believe. We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves”. (Berger. J 1972 pg.8,9). Bearing this in mind, it would be good demonstrate in the animation, that we are living creatures and there is a beauty of ‘looking’.

I grew up in a suburban town and I have never lived in Derbyshire, but it is where the majority of my family live and it is a place that has always has a strong place in my memory because of the countless journeys I have made there in my childhood. I am in awe of the vast Peak district landscape, which covers 555 square meters, and is full of history and is visited by people from all over the globe.

Also, my uncle has been a peak district ranger for over forty years now and has a vast breadth of knowledge about the area. He has kindly offered to aid my research, as I will be going to the Peak district to do some primary research.

The program about David Hockney, ‘The Bigger Picture’, and how one sees with memory greatly inspired me, as the large scaled paintings he created were painted quite rapidly in situ and this is how he saw what was in front of him at one point in time. They reflect the journeys of the Yorkshire landscapes that have accumulated in his past and present memories and help to tell a story. I would like to examine the process of how we create and make journeys and visually record them as a drawing through seeing and looking at what is in front of us.

I have had a little previous experience with using animation programs such as after effects, and Premiere Pro. I have also had previous experience with sound software to create sound effects. I would like to take the opportunity to further my knowledge within these programs, as I aspire to work largely in screen- based outcomes in the future of my creative practice.

6 principles of Chinese painting

1. Spirit, resonance, Vitality  and energy
2. Bone method via Calligraphy and painting (they are seen together)
3. Correspondence to object SHAPE and LINE!
4. Application of colour
5 Placement and arrangement, composition, space and depth
6. Transmission

'Ways of seeing' - John Berger (1972)

Ways of seeing in paintings

• The meaning of a painting has now become transmittable and can be manipulated and transformed.
• Paintings/images are modified when sound is accompanied to it
• Words you notice consciously
• Music is more subtle and can work with an image almost without noticing it - music and rhythm change the significance of the imagery.
• Details of images can be cut to fit the music
• Camera movements help to tell the story and selected details are presented to you.
• In a film sequence, the details have to be selected and re-arranged into a narrative, which depends on unfolding time. In a painting, there is no unfolding time.
• When images are re-produced, they become a form of information, which is being continually transmitted - and the meanings of the image are interchangeable and ambiguous
• Images can used by anybody for their own use.

The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled

The way we see things is affected by what we know or believe

We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice

We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves

An image is a sight, which has been recreated or produced. It is an appearance, or a set pf appearances, which has been detached from the place and time

Every image embodies a way of seeing. Even a photograph – our perception or appreciation of an image depends also upon our own way of seeing.

When an image is presented as a work of art, the way people look at it is affected by a whole series of learnt assumptions concerning: Beauty, truth, genius, civilization, form status, and taste etc.

http://www.axisweb.org/ofSARF.aspx?SELECTIONID=60

David Hockney has introduced a new and interesting direction to his practice. He has created a film, which is not something that he has undertaken much before.

Using modern technology, Hockney has used 9 cameras fixed to a frame structure, which is attached to his car. The cameras are placed at equal distances to form a 3x3 grid so that they can focus on the lower, midlle and foreground. He then drives down the 'tunnel' road during spring, sumer, autumn and winter.

The multiple cameras help to look more closely at certain aspect aspects of the view, whereas with one camera, you would have to be a lot further back to see entirety of the same view.

I really want to go to this exhibition, but the royal academy seemingly have made it very difficult to book tickets, if you are not already a member. Hopefully I will be able to see it soon, but for now this you tube video will have to suffice.

This exhibition, the 'bigger picture' focuses on the recent paintings that David Hockney has created in his home county of Yorkshire, which is not somewhere he has previously painted before. This aspect of his has interested me because in order to look and visualise this landscape, he has immersed himself within it,drawing it, painting it and looking at it.

the national parks CPRE

Glossop 1900's street view

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouNYsWoRbq8

This short film of Glossop highstreet was actually found in a skip and has been restored. It shows a scene in glossop in the early 1900's. You can't see much landscape, but it does give a good indication about the look of Glossop and its historical context.

the landscape album Westal W.

Michael Dudok De Wit

I really like this animation by Dudok De Wit