Week 05: Seminar and 1-1 support

This week I have been discussing our project with the rest of the team with theirs. Discussed other aspects of the current progress, timeline and purpose of the project. We exchanged ideas and looked at each other’s recent project progress and upcoming tasks.

Through discussions with ziyao, the group planned to make a game. He shared with us the group’s current progress and some of his ideas. Their group has produced an episodic game with a very distinctive graphic style. I think they have a great project.

Week 04 : FMP Thesis proposal Ideas

A study of the contemporaneity of experimental animation creation

1.

Experimental animation has become an integral part of the history of animation with its unique style and strong artistry and creativity.

how commercial animation, as mainstream animation, feeds off of experimental animation.

2.

Animation artists are constantly breaking through the limits of the medium and the concept of experimental animation, and it is this way of creating animation that will determine the future direction of animation. Experimental animation can be divided into many different expressions and styles, but in the context of contemporary art, the artistic style and thematic concepts of experimental animation are more precious and urgent.

Will the integration of contemporary art concepts and creative ideas into experimental animation make it equally contemporary and able to replace commercial animation as the mainstream?

3.

The importance of humorous exaggerated action design in animated films – “Hotel Transylvania” as an example

4.

A study of the relationship between animated character design and realistic movement

Week 2: Experimental Animation

This week we learned the basics of experimental animations and watched several videos to strengthen the idea of this type of animation.

The first experimental animation I saw was ‘Balance’

In the air, hovering over a four-sided flat plate, on which stand five men, the same appearance, the same attire, the same expressionless faces, distinguished only by the different numbers they carry behind them. In the center of the plate is an invisible fulcrum, and to balance it, the five men must find the right position. Originally, simply standing in the center would have been enough, but, like us, they were curious about the world and wanted to know what it was like down there. And with the arrival of a box, this balance is upset. The box brings music, excitement, but also imbalance, disagreement, and struggle.

Week 02:Collaborate Project Brief 

We worked with students in game design and virtual reality. We were attracted by their ideas and decided to join their team through discussions. During the first week of group discussions we decided on a story theme, game mechanics and found some references.

First, we decided to make a 3D VR game. Our game theme is built in a forest that combines the ancient with the future. The main characters are sprites, captured by a human boss to collect samples of the plants in this forest to extract new energy from them. The sprite interacts with the infected plant to get a sample. It will then give the samples to the boss to complete one mission after another. The mechanics of this game are a bit like Luigi’s Mansion. The main task of our 3D section was to complete the NPC transitions.

The purpose of our project is to warn people to protect the environment and to be kind to other creatures. Because in our story setting, the sprites are taken to work in this forest because they don’t die in this forest full of radiation. But humans will die immediately if they enter here. The human boss wants to exploit the energy in the forest so he kidnaps the elves’ families and enslaves them to work for him. So maybe afterwards we will have a reversal and the sprite may overcome the human boss to save his family.

The Valley of the Winds—scenes and tools from the ancient future

annihilation—-The radiated forest

luigi’s Maison3 —-Collection mechanism

Princess Mononoke —Forest Natives

Week 1: Ideas

Consider the following questions and try to provide brief answers on your blog for next week.

On graduation which area or environment of production do you wish to focus upon and why?
What skills will you need to attain the standards required for vocational practice?
How will you showcase your FMP practice for the final shows?
Is it important to directly connect the thesis research to your practical work?
Do you have an area of research you wish to conduct that is unrelated to the practical element?
There are several areas that I would like to focus on in my thesis and project:

Area 01

Experimental animation is an area that I would like to delve into. I am fascinated by some darkly humorous experimental animation.
In recent years experimental animation has taken a certain place in animation with its unique style. However, commercial animation is still firmly in the mainstream. I would like to try to investigate how experimental animation changes when combined with contemporaneity. And whether this change will reveal a new form of experimental animation.

Area 02:

The direction of black humour animation is another direction I would like to study. The dark humour in the film is a technique used by directors.

Week 01: Intro to the Unit and project

Create an entry for this week detailing your responsibilities, thoughts, what projects you are looking forward to working on. What you are aiming to get out of it and where you are wanting your career to be heading.

Make a team:

Our project collaboration team currently consists of five members.

Lanjie Xiong(l.xiong0120201@arts.ac.uk), Qian Tang(a.tang0320211@arts.ac.uk),
Yang Hong(y.hong0620211@arts.ac.uk), tszkwan yeung (t.yeung0720181@arts.ac.uk)
kunrong xu(k.xu0520211@arts.ac.uk)

Lanjie and me from MA 3D animation. Yang Hong from MA Game Design. Tszkwan Yeung and Kunrong Xu from MA Visual Effects

project：

In a forest that combines the ancient with the future (reference: Valley of the Winds 1984). The main characters are sprites, captured by a human boss to collect samples of the plants in this forest to extract new energy from them.

Responsibilities

The project work is divided into the following areas.
3D part: storyboarding, modelling, animation, lighting and rendering
Game part: text script, game mechanics design, level design
VR part: interaction implementation, VFX, programming

Thoughts

Theme：
Plants /forest /spirts /non human /plants experience / races conflict/ radiation/ mutation
Botanist

Job providers: The lord/ The doctor

Player: the collector

other characters： forest spirits

inspiration.

Princess Mononoke —Forest Natives

luigi’s Maison3 —-Collection mechanism

annihilation—-The radiated forest

The Valley of the Winds—scenes and tools from the ancient future

Research Presentation and Post Links

Research Presentation:

The representation and influence of Gothic animation:

presentationDownload

Research Posts Links:

Week 08:Research Areas: Gothic color analysis:

Week 08:Research Areas: Gothic colour analysis

Post Links:

Week 0: Timeline & Understanding of the history of film, animation, and VFX.

Week 0: Timeline & Understanding of the history of film, animation and VFX.

Week 1 ：Good & Bad Animation according to my understanding

Week 1 ：Good & Bad Animation according to my understanding

Week 1: The Animation studios/forms of animation/animators who imitated or resisted Disney’s hy

Week 1 : The Animation studios/forms of animation/animators who imitated or resisted Disney’s hy

Week 2 : Notes and summaries

Week 2 : Notes and summaries

Week 3 : Note

Week 3 : Note

Week 3: Mise-en-scene Analysis & Summary

Week 3 : Mise-en-scene Analysis & Summary

Week 4 : Film Story & Characters Breakdown & Timeline

Week 4 : Film Story & Characters Bleakdown & Timeline

Week 5 : Film Character & Story Development Breakdown

Week 5 : Film Character & Story Development Breakdown

Week 07: Research Areas: Gothic color analysis（First draft）

Week 07: Research Areas: Gothic colour analysis（First draft）

Animation Fundamenta

Showreel:

Challenges Hyberlinks:

Challenges 1: 12 Principles of Animation research/analysis:

week 1 : The 12 principles of animation

Challenges 1-2: Bouncing Ball with Travel & Obstacle Course:

Week 1 ：Bouncing Ball with Travel & Obstacle Course

Challenges 3: Ball & Tail Animation:

Week 2 : Ball & Tail Animation

Challenges 4: Solid Posing :

Week 2 : Solid Posing

Challenges 5-6: walk cycle & Emotional walking

Week 3 : walk cycle & Emotional walking

Challenges 7: Intro Body Mechanics:

Week 4 : Intro to Body Mechanics

Challenges 8: Advanced Body Mechanics:

https://qiantang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2021/12/23/week-7-advanced-body-mecha/

Challenges 9: Phonemes and Performance

https://qiantang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/01/09/week-09-phonemes-and-performance/

Challenges 10: Performance Animation and Previs

https://qiantang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/01/09/week-10-performance-animation-and-previs-camera-animation/