READING & WRITING:
Working backwards this week , Chapter 6, of Animated Storytelling Blazer suggest that great artist have become great because they had the courage to, “be honest about what skills were needed to get to the next level.”
Which brings me back to Chapter 5, Color Sense. If there is one thing that I have already learned about myself while taking this course, is that I would benefit from taking a class on color. While I love art, I do not have an art or design background, so although I took Visual Design from Quinnipiac, I still feel that I am missing some essential components of color design and text placement. I think the most helpful note from the reading was the warning not to upstate your subject, this feels like a feasible suggestion, one that makes sense to me and that I could actually implement tomorrow without any additional training.
On a negative note, the gaps in my skill set seem tremendous, never-ending, and often overwhelming. There are so many things that I know I need to learn and improve on; eg., walk cycles, timing, transitions, color, palette selection, saturation, text, text placement, framing, clarifying tone, the list is endless.
Fail better.
Samuel Beckett
However, from a more generous perspective, I am always working at the -edge of my skill set- described by Samuel Beckett. In fact, I find that my projects are just out of reach from where I am currently, which has led me to heavily rely on the motto ‘done not perfect.’ This means that I am sitting right in the middle of stinking maximus. I am taking hope that by doing so, some sort of genius will happen. After all, the creative ideas and inspiration just keep bubbling.
RESEARCH TO INFORM:
This piece is absolutely mesmerizing. the ashes are from a devastating volcano, and the artist used them in such a way to inspire, and create new life. Amazing how 39 seconds of animation can tell such a powerful story.
The Shaman’s Tale is so artful, beginning with the opening, which pulls your eye down the page onto the jungle floor. The pattern cutouts of the animals is so inspiring, along with perspective shifts from extremely close up to wide frame.
The sound and music on this one is nothing short of genius! Not to mention, with simple silhouettes so much tension was created, and by 2:30 in, I was gut wrenched. The story resolution is tear-worthy. Lots of love for this piece.
CREATE:
A Whale of a Tale
A Whale of a Tale, flips the perspective on the book of Jonah. I chose this story because it is a popular novelette for three major religious, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The biggest challenge I see with this idea is time constraints. Although I think the story would lend itself to stop-motion, it would be insanely time consuming for one person to attempt.
Color Zoom
Color Zoom will be an exploration of primary colors. This idea was birthed out of discussions with my sisters, who both teach special education. I chose the beaded necklace story format to reinforce the color adventure, by ending with the three colors a teacher would like their students to learn.
As much as I would like to animate Whale of a Tale as a stop-motion piece, considering the time constraints of the class I would like to save this for perhaps future frame-by-frame animation. I don’t want to sell the story short in any way. However, I also have more personal reasons for wanting to do color zoom, as both my sisters teach special education and they love having material they know is fun, meaningful, and safe for the classroom.
TEST ANIMATION:
Well, this was definitely more difficult than I thought it would be! Having shot photography, I was surprised at just how much time it took to set the animation stage and then how much more time the actual process of shooting each frame took. Although a little stressful, the test made me realize for my final project I have to find a better way to rig my lighting to give a more consistent look to project. In addition, I realized that it will be very important to rely on my storyboards and have a clear idea where I am going well before I lay out the cars. In fact, I could see it being a good idea to do another quick storyboard breaking down the larger ideas into smaller pieces. Finally, I quickly realized how every little adjustment will show in the final outcome, and I must be careful to only move items in the way they need to be moved. Although this has a long way to go, I do see potential with the idea itself.
by nikolai 
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