Animation Context/Story Writing Script to Screen: semester 2 week 5: 26/2/18: Self Directed: Research and Waking up Sleeping Beauty.
Once again in Animation Context, due to recent events it was a self directed lesson and after doing some stopmotion for Animation 102, I did some research into my chosen essay topic. Bringing in books I'd marked for certain subjects such as perspective, colour theory and anatomy which I would cover as the qualities of being a concept artist. In doing my research, I took small notes which I may wish to incorporate into my essay/magazine. In addition to when our scheduled session began Annabeth had us watching an old Disney documentary named Waking up Sleeping Beauty, which described the old ways of animation and how they wished to bring it back to the world of animation today.
I watched with interest and it talked about how at times it was a clash of interests and how it lead to a rise and fall of Disney but only for them to spring back up again, with such successful movies as Beauty and the Beast. Whilst watching the documentary, I found myself sketching a cats face in my journal using my own style of drawing, and in doing so I had a sudden motion to build upon my sketch.
On the next page I sketched out some animal characters using designs from my Dancer and the Shoemaker story from Storytelling script to screen. For some reason this opened a new possible design route for my story and so I consulted with Annabeth on this matter. She said it could be an interesting idea to look at antromorphic animal characters and suggested looking at cats from Paris should I choose to follow up on this idea.
When I was reading my chosen research books I was feeling engaged with what was being said in the books. I jotted down notes that I felt were important for my research and listed the books as I went along. I was taking in all the books knowledge at least in areas that I focused on and this made me think about how I should read the books more rather than skip to the art tutorials.
Watching the documentary made me feel I was looking back through the history of animation and it could be of possible use to me in my video essay topic. The moment of hearing of the passing of Howard Ashman I was feeling depressed and saddened by the loss of a talented man but at the same time I couldn't help but wonder if the ending sequence of Beauty and the Beast was done in his honour. When I was sketching random objects such as a cat face I was thinking that I was distracted but upon looking at what I created I felt the creative cogs in my head turning.
When I did the characters of my Dancer and the Shoe maker story like cats it seemed to be a very interesting approach and the fact that Annabeth suggested I should develop it and wonder its use in my project. I began to imagine the possibilities of this style of work.
I watched with interest and it talked about how at times it was a clash of interests and how it lead to a rise and fall of Disney but only for them to spring back up again, with such successful movies as Beauty and the Beast. Whilst watching the documentary, I found myself sketching a cats face in my journal using my own style of drawing, and in doing so I had a sudden motion to build upon my sketch.
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| Sketches of Dancer and the Shoemaker Characters as cats. (c) A.Montgomery |
On the next page I sketched out some animal characters using designs from my Dancer and the Shoemaker story from Storytelling script to screen. For some reason this opened a new possible design route for my story and so I consulted with Annabeth on this matter. She said it could be an interesting idea to look at antromorphic animal characters and suggested looking at cats from Paris should I choose to follow up on this idea.
Feelings:
When I was reading my chosen research books I was feeling engaged with what was being said in the books. I jotted down notes that I felt were important for my research and listed the books as I went along. I was taking in all the books knowledge at least in areas that I focused on and this made me think about how I should read the books more rather than skip to the art tutorials.
Watching the documentary made me feel I was looking back through the history of animation and it could be of possible use to me in my video essay topic. The moment of hearing of the passing of Howard Ashman I was feeling depressed and saddened by the loss of a talented man but at the same time I couldn't help but wonder if the ending sequence of Beauty and the Beast was done in his honour. When I was sketching random objects such as a cat face I was thinking that I was distracted but upon looking at what I created I felt the creative cogs in my head turning.
When I did the characters of my Dancer and the Shoe maker story like cats it seemed to be a very interesting approach and the fact that Annabeth suggested I should develop it and wonder its use in my project. I began to imagine the possibilities of this style of work.
Evaluation:
Looking back on the session I felt that things went very well having done research and worked on some of my other modules at the same time. At the time I thought taking small notes from what I was reading in the books that I'd brought in from home and booked from the library was a good way to get a starting point for my essay. Watching the documentary was very beneficial to because in some way it gave me the inspiration to sketch the cat face leading to the possibility of doing my characters for my storytelling module in a similar way. I remembered how inspiration can come from even the most unusual sources as said in Geoff Taylor's How to Draw and Paint Science fiction art "Take the time to learn the existing lore to find inspiration" (2011 p. 18 & p.19).
Analysis:
The motive of todays tasks was to begin a starting point for my essay to work on over the next week before handing in the draft. The situation was helped when I took the liberty of marking my books before hand so that if this was a self directed lesson I would have the means to carry out my task. The introduction of the documentary was a surprise but also beneficial for something to look at for other modules. I was surprised by the fact I drew a cat in my journal then communicated them into my storytelling module idea. It was the logical move asking for Annabeth's opinion on this matter and her suggestions were taken to heart as a possible avenue of ideas for my story.
Conclusion:
Looking back in hindsight, I should've found the time to do some computer based research as well to take notes from some of my internet sources and took notes along with what I'd taken down so far. In terms of watching the documentary I would've taken notes as a possible research source for my Making of module video essay which could act as a starting point. Looking back at the matter of the sketch whilst it emerged as a slight distraction it was a very happy accident one that I must develop further. However todays session was very insightful for many of my modules including this one.
Action Plan:
In future I shall look at my internet research sources and take notes that are applicable to my essay topic and try and make a start on my essay draft either over this week or on my day off. I will start conducting research into Antromorphic cats and animals on my pinterest board and the internet to see where it takes me in terms of my characters. I feel that today has granted me more and more ideas and avenues to explore in both Animation Context and Storyboarding Script to screen and I look forward to seeing where the path leads to.
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