After playing around on after effects with my animation. I decided to introduce some additional transitions between clips on my animation. I did this because I felt that my animation could do with some added effects as I was unable to zoom etc using with the camera I was using at the time of producing the animation. I think by doing this the animation has improved. 

This was the outcome and my final animation.....

Final Animation and reflection.......

I am really happy with the final outcome of my animation. It has come out exactly if not better than how I pictured. In response the the original brief I think the animation works in parallel to the music provided and reflects my thoughts and feelings of the track. 

What I would have changed...

I dont think there is anything I would change about my animation as it has come out how I pictured it. If I had more than 30 seconds I may have experimented with the movement of my robot figure and maybe introduced different ways in which the tape moves.

Time management

I feel I have used the time well and given my self 3 or 4 days to polish the animation as well as my blog. I decided to stay in Sheffield over easter to use as much of the time available to get it just how i wanted it. 

3 Words

My original 3 words for this animation were "Growth, Layers, Electronic".

Growth:  I feel I have definitely reflected this word in my animation as the whole concept of the animation involves 3 wires growing to the music around my flat.

Layers: I decided to use 3 layers of tape in my animation to reflect this and also have edited my animation to move to the layers of the music such as the movement of my character.

Electronic: The concept of my animation is basically the movement of electricity from a plug to a television illustrated by 3 electronic wires. I don't think there is much more I could have done to illustrate this word in my animation any more.

What I have learnt

With this being my first look at using animation in graphics I have learnt so much. This project has opened an endless list of opportunities for me. Not only have I learnt about the basic principles of animation but I have experimented and learnt my way around the programmes in which to make my ideas into animated form. Although I have used a camera to produce my animation I have also experimented with other techniques such as drawing and digital forms of animation.

Composition in after effects....

Now that I have all the elements of my animation I have now gone on to put all the video elements together in after effects. As there was very limited space between transitions of different clips of the animations I decided to keep the effects I used in after effects fairly simple. So between the clips I just used the opacity tool to fade between scenes...

Once I had put them all together this is how the composition came out without music....

Now I am going to add the music to complete my animation......

Music editing....

Due to the length of my track and the length of my animation I decided to edit the track to go with my animation. I wanted parts such as the robot figure in my animation to walk to the beat when it came in.

I edited my track like this:

0:59 - 1:29

In this section of the music for 13 seconds my animation is growing so I had the section of music which I thought reflected this. The beat then comes in at 1:12 which is when my robot character starts to walk. The pattern then continues to grow to this beat.

4:19 - 4:25

At around about the 1:20 mark on the track I then start to blend in this section of music which is towards the en of the track and I faded out the music to reflect the end of the track.

Final Animation Production....

Step 1

When I started this production 4 days ago, I think I may have underestimated the time it was going to take. Hopefully it will be worth it. I started by taping the entire of my room with the pattern that I wanted the animation to grow into. This started at the television and ended at the door. When I came to start animating I would simply take a bit of tape of each of the 3 strands each frame. 

 

Step 2

I then started the long process of animating the pattern by taking small amounts of each strand off and capturing the image. For capturing the image I set up a camera on a tripod which was then linked up to "Istopmotion". By having the camera on a tripod this allowed me to keep the camera steady when I wanted it to be and also allowed me to move the camera by small amounts when I needed to.

Step 3

Once I reached robot character involved in my animation I started to animate him by moving the arms and legs of his body by small amounts. I think this came out really well. I then dissembled the figure so when I reversed the animation it would look like the figure was growing.

Step 4

I then continued to remove the tape until it reached the door.

Step 5

I had now finished the room part of my animation and I then had to start the corridor part. This part was a bit different because The pattern was made to go along the floor and around the walls. The capturing of the section was a bit more difficult as there were some quite tight camera angles when moving the camera around the walls. I decided to change the position of the camera half way through as I thought this would get the best positioning of the animation.

Once the tape had ended at the plug, it wasn't over yet, I then did the animation of my hand coming in to turn the plug on but in this case turning the plug off as it would be reversed. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but this was probably because I had already done about 7 hours of animation that day.

Step 5

Finally I went back to the television and taped my name onto it. I did this in a way that all the letters were joined so I could then animate it to look like the strands of tape and give the effect it is growing over the television.

Now its time to put it all together and put it in after effects......

Change of plan...

I have decided to change of the route of my animation as I think it would work better and there are more obstacles for my pattern to manoeuvre around. I have also changed how my robot figure is going to move.

I have decided to have my animation route into my room rather than the kitchen

I decided o do this because I think this view looking down the corridor gives a bigger canvas for my pattern. I can have the pattern rotating round the walls and over the ceiling. 

The wires will then move up my door and through the crack at the top of my door.

The wires will then reappear at the top of my door giving the impression it has slipped through the door.

The wires will then continue over my wardrobe doors.

Once pattern has reached the side of the wardrobe the robot figure will then form. But instead of walking round the walls I have decided to make it walk on the spot like in the experimental animation I did. This is just because I think it is a lot of time wasted on something not really worth it.

The robot character will then dissemble back into the pattern and continue round the walls.

Pattern continues over shelving.

Wires drop into back of the television.

END

Transitions....

I have put together a few of the animations I have made in after effects into one 30 second long animation. I have also experimented with transitions between the animations.....

I will need to use these in my final animation as I have different camera angles and shots moving round the room.

Animation Experimetation 3 (Robot Forming)....

Here I have made an animation of my character being formed......

This works really well but was very time consuming again...

Animation Experimetation 2 (Robot character).....

Another part of my animation which I need to work on is my robot character and how it is going to move. I first formed the character in tape then moved the limbs of the character gradually each frame.....

The difficulty with this was that it was very time consuming and at the moment I have got the form walking on the spot. In order to make the figure move forward this would take even more time. Once I had each arm and leg moving I can just repeat the frames to make it continue walking on the spot.

I then added the section of music to see how this would work.

This works well but at points in it the figure doesn't walk in time with the beat. I am also going to try different ways of moving the figure maybe using computer animation in flash.... 

Animation Experimentation (Growing Pattern).....

I decided to test how I would give the impression of my pattern growing round the walls in my experimentation using electrical tape. The pattern I wanted to create is based on the shapes on a circuit board. This will give an added electrical element to my animation.

I decided to create the pattern first and then I could just take of parts of it to create the stop motion. The pattern I settled on was.......

I then set up my camera and began the painstaking job of removing around 2cm on each of the strands of tape and photographing the image each time I did so. Although this way was easier than adding tape each time it was still a long task. 

3 hours later this was the outcome.....

This came out better than I expected and so I added the music I wanted on my animation to see how well it worked......

I am happy with this but due to the size of my overall pattern I wanted to have a look at other ways of animating the pattern which takes a bit less time.....

Rayogram...

These are a few of the rayograms i produced. I used some printed images on acetate which I think came out really well. I used a variety of vector patterns such as halftones and stars.

This was the outcome......

This is quite a simple pattern I used taken from a photo of a metal gate.

In this I have used to sheets of acetate. One with halftone patterns and one with stars on. I was quite lucky with this because the ink on my printer was running out so gave this nice effect of the stars fading out.

Storyboard description....

Opening shot is of a plug socket with a plug with wires hanging out the bottom. A hand is just coming into shot.

This is 58 seconds into "Music is Math" track. The 3 wires represent the layers of the track and the wires represent the electronic genre of the track. The wires are represented by electrical tape.

The hand then moves further into shot and turns on the plug.

The camera shot then zooms out. The wires then start to grow up the wall into a pattern. This links to the growth of the track. 

The camera zooms further out and the electrical tape continues to grow and moves down onto the floor.

The camera then views the corridor on which the tape moves across the floor and into the kitchen. The picture then fades out into the next shot.

The shot fades up and views the wires growing through the kitchen door way and up the wall which then forms into the robot character.

At 1:12 into the track the the music changes into a walking beat so the robot figure begins to walk round the room to the beat. The camera moves round and zooms to a shot of a full shot of the wall.

Camera moves round to a corner of the room and the character continues to walk round the room.

Camera continues to move round to the window and character walks over the window.

Camera moves round to view the final wall of the room.

Camera pans round to where a television is and the character stops walking.

Character then breaks down into pattern again and appears to grow into the back of the television. Music cuts to 4:32 into track.

Camera cuts to a close up of the television which turns on and reads my name. Music ends at 4:42 into track.

Storyboard....

This is my completed storyboard for my animation......

Experimenting in After Effects

In after effects I have experimented with transitions between images......

Electrical Tape Pattern Experimentation

Here I have experimented using the electrical tape to produce patterns.