After our lunch break we met in the campus reception and with most of the animation group we went on a tram to Deansgate to attend a panel at the Manchester Animation Festival and would be attending the making of activity of a children's television show called Twirlywoos created by Mackinnon and Saunders an animation company in Altrincham where I once tried to apply for work experience but wasn't able to. However I did have one issue as I'd bought a ticket for viewing student films at ten to two and the making of was at two'o clock but Annabeth and me agreed that the making of made more sense to attend as there would be experts from the studio present to give the session at the cinema in the Home building near the Deansgate tram station. Upon arrival we met up with other members of the group who came earlier to do activities at the festival in storyboard workshops, we looked around the Mackinnon and Saunders exhibition in the building on the first and second floors of the buildings and these were framed photos and rough sketches of some of their stop motion animated films such as Frakenweenie, Corpse Bride, Fantastic Mr.Fox, Sandman and Mars Attacks.
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| Concept art, sketches, models and size sheets from Fantastic Mr. Fox |
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| Character line up sheet |
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| Page from a chapter of the storybook |
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| Sketches of rough sketches from Sandman |
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| Storyboards of Sandman |
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| Mars Attacks character doodles. |
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Mars Attacks original poster cards.
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We looked around these pieces and I was all but taken in by all of this and it even gave me some inspiration for my own artwork and concept sketches for future stories in my own work. What I was the most interested in was the way the storyboard was laid out for Sandman and the use of inking within the storyboard and used of rough pencil sketches for the story scenes even making it look slightly horror like in the darkness of this story which whilst not seeing the film did revolve around the idea of this particular story like the artists were connecting deep with the story itself. Upon two o'clock We went to cinema 2 to attend the making of panel and we took our seats at the front as advised by Annabeth to get good photo shots of the models used in the television series which looked very cute and cuddly which was the idea of the appearance.
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| Photo of the Twirlywoos characters |
The people giving the speech were experts from their respective studios and they were Barry Purves and Ian Mackinnon from Mackinnon and Saunders with the writer and creator Steve Roberts from Ragdoll the same students behind Rosie and Jim, and Tots TV. They began explaining how the story of the Twirlywoos came to be and even showing us some concept art from how they were originally going to look in the show not as bird like creatures but little hidden stone people living in a lamp post. I did like these concept art sketches since as an artist I could see how the characters began to develop in terms of colour and presentation.
As we were shown more and more concat art we began to see how the characters were refined and developed by the crew and how they explained that the one element that didn't change was the ducks on the lamp post that were soon shown on the boat that would be there home in the opening sequence, and what took me in was that in their work they were using stop motion in real life elements of the show which and in the clips shown it seemed that they first did the animatic of the scene then captured the real life element of the story with simple reference filming then using green screening to introduce the characters in stop motion then edit out the armatures within the model. This maybe an approach to consider in our own projects and may approach my city project team tomorrow in intro to creative play.
One thing that I took in was that what Steve had said and that was the character wouldn't work without a story you may have rough sketches and ideas but it wouldn't work without a story behind it this was something to consider for one of my own future stories that I only have a name for but yet to develop in terms of a story line and characters. One other thing was as Barry stated do your homework as it would give you less time in the stop motion studio. Listening to these experts I felt like I was getting advice about my own creations and I must admit the design of the characters did seem to suit that of a children's television show, as if I was, still a four year old now I wouldn't stop watching this show, it just reminds us what we leave behind as we grow up into young adults leading a life of our own only for the new generation to experience this for themselves and get their own ideas of how to fit in with the world around them.
Upon the ending of this panel and looking back, it had given me so much to think about in terms of my work at university and my work that I produce for myself in my own time, and how it could possibly of use to me in this module of animation. Hearing from experts is always a core element within this area of field in any part of animation, even having them meet us at the campus to aid in the lectures. In conclusion seeing this instead of the student films was a good idea as I could learn a lot more from this than I could from films produced by past students never the less it was a very productive afternoon and I hope it would be of help to me in this project.
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