For BA1B Animation to soundtrack I had to design an animated visual sequence to reflect the emotional and/or perceived narrative potential of the music of my choice. I think my animation went fairly well, I went through a few ideas before I reached this outcome. I feel like I matched up the soundtrack to the animation pretty well by using a story. The best part in my opinion being the paws appearing one by one in time to the music. I feel like it matched up well. It was a story that the audience might already be familiar with so it doesn't need too much explaining and they still understand. This can be a good thing and a bad thing, in that if they didn't know the story. Would they understand? Was my animation clear enough?
I feel like I could have done more research on animation with soundtrack, I also feel like I could have done a lot more experimenting on flash. The main reason I chose the section of music I did is for the way it fades out at the end, I wanted to create an animation to a narrative. The faded ending felt like it was mysterious, as it's not the end of the mystery.
There are always things I can improve on; I would make everything look more professional. I would find a way to make the forest a bit cleaner looking, I just want to expand my own knowledge of flash and audition. As The audio also isn't as great as it could be.
The first time I converted my 10 second animation my audio wasn't brilliant, so with the help of these instructions I was able to make the audio better. This is the bad audio version although it is worse because I converted it further onto youtube,
This is the outcome, still not the best but it's better when watched on quicktime rather than converted onto youtube.
I was just searching for something to listen to and I came across Mika's 'lollipop', I watched it all the way through again and found the animated fox that sings the lyrics.
It gave me the idea to represent my hound like this, all black with glowing eyes.
I was doing exactly that, when I decided it wasn't going to work. But it just made it look too much like a childs cartoon, not like the creepy vibe I was going for. I decided I needed to change this.
As a result I decided to take away the body of the hound and just left his eyes, I felt like it added more mystery to what could be in woods.
This is a more detailed version of my original storyboard, however this one has the changes that I've decided to make to my story. I.e the paw prints instead of the foot prints and the newly made woods. It will all be timed to this. 1:20 - 1:30.
The main reason I choice the section of music I did if for the way it fades out at the end, I wanted to create an animation to a narrative. The faded ending felt like it was mysteriou, as it's not the end of the mystery.
A key object in my piece is a magnifying glass the explores the scene trying to work out the mystery. I want the objects to get larger when it moved over it, I got it to work but I feel like I could make it smoother.I also have a magnifying glass that travels over a forest.....
When looking at this image I felt like there was something missing, the the magnifying glass was going over the scene but nothing was happening. I'd previously made this background on photoshop so there wasn't anything I could do about moving it on flash, so I would either have to create a forest on flash or find another way. I was introduced to 'masking'.
I was able to create another layer of my forest that was zoomed in, that was only shown through the glass. Which I felt was extremely effective, the only issue had with this, was that I was a circle tool to mask a certain area. But I drew my glass by hand and as a result trying to get it fit perfectly was hard, it doesn't look too bad. It's just slightly off that the frame of the magnifying glass changes width.
Within the magnifying glass I wanted it to find the hound, but to make it creepier I wanted the audience to just see the eyes glowing red. Although I feel like the background it still not dark enough to just see the eyes, I would need it to basically be pitch black. I'll see if I decide to change this.
'Dope sheet' is the informal/common term for the worksheet used by animation directors to plan timing and action for an animation, Each scene in an animation will have it's own dope sheet; broken down into frame numbering for timing with detailed instructions regarding the field, camera movements, action, etc. If I was going to use a dope sheet I would have done already, I would have used it to plan my sequence but by bit. However I felt like I did'n't need one, I just used a storyboard and planned it as I went. I realise that isn't the professional way to create an animation but it worked for me.
After deciding I was doing the hound of baskerville story, I thought it was best to research what the hound would look like. I found he was large and a dark colour (normally black) with glowing RED eyes. And red eyes in particular, I watched the episode the other day and that was how he was described.
I decided it would be best to create my own forest for the hound, I did this on photoshop which I realise now might not have been the best. Because once ive made it there's nothing I can do once it's in flash. But I just found it the easier option for what I wanted to do.
I drew it out first, although automatically I felt like I made it too complicated. With too many branches, when all I really need is a dark area.
I started to texture it, the grass was going well. But it just felt too complicated with everything that was going on, I felt the next thing to do was to make it simpler.
I just turned it into a wall of trees, with there being noticeable distances between them all. I ended up going for this design. I wanted to go for the look much like in many old cartoons, where the background doesn't move and so it's pretty. And you can tell what objects are going to move by how different they look.
(An image of what I mean about having the back static, but have the objects that move looking different.)
It was always the idea to have a woods for my creature to be in, I decided to look up different types of woods. I just wanted to keep it very simple, I just feel if I make it too complicated then the focus will be taken away from the creature. I picked a few of my favourites to take inspiration from, my favourites are the bottom middle and bottom right images.
When I was animating the scene with the foot prints something about it just didn't feel right, the idea of paw prints popped into my head as a result I decided to replace them. Which then led me to thinking about the story in sherlock 'the hound of Baskerville' - which at that point I decided to base my short animation on. I could keep my idea of a forest, but instead at the end have a hound. Narrative of 'Hound of Baskerville': A bored Sherlock decides to take on the case of Henry Knight, who claims to have seen the footprint of a gigantic hound in the woods. He also claims that 20 years before he had seen his father mauled to death by the creature. Holmes assumes that the source of the creature is the nearly Baskerville military research facility. Using his brother Mycroft's identity card, he and Watson gain access to the facility though his ruse is quickly found out. His faith in his abilities is shaken to the core when he too sees the creature, something that genuinely frightens him.
I made a rough mock up of what my animation might look like within 9 frames, the only thing I didn't feel right about was the foot prints. I felt like they didn't really have impact and it felt weird that they were there. I decided to mock up a quick photoshop version.
The issue of the feet still bothered me, it didn't feel right and I felt like I needed to change it. At the point I wasn't sure what to. As at this point I had to decide what the black figure was going to look like.
This song has a different feel than daft punk, it' s slower. I feel like I could animate a short story to it. (1:10 - 1:20) - big build up
(1:20 - 1:30) - fades out
It reminded me of the opening intro from monsters inc, the tempo is slow and the animations are simple. What I like about this is that it has a story, it's all relevant.
Just a page of scribbles, but I tried to write down all things I felt were relevant to Sherlock Holmes. Anything I could make a story out of.
When searching the web I came across a 8- bit version of daft punk's 'harder, better,faster,stonger'. This only interested me because I felt like I could produce pixel art for my animation, but the only concern I have is that unlike the original it's not very clear at to what it is going on.
Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (8 bit)
I decided on 'Money' by Pink Floyd pretty quickly, this was because it had a great bass riff which is what I always knew I wanted to do. But I'm also a huge fan of daft punk (I could have effected my decision) and they're music seems to create images in my head and I feel like the 'techno' feel could create something great.
Out of all the soundtracks i'd found so far I felt like 'Money' by Pink Floyd would be the best to do, I enjoy the simple bass riff. But along with it are simple money noises along with electric guitar, I felt like it was clear enough for me to understand what I could do with it.
I decided to roughly make a storyboard for what I feel could be within the animation, this being some bass strings strumming a draw that opens and closes for money to fall into. And a shape to represent the electric guitar. But was it too simple?
Here are some modern example of animation to sound, some of them are music videos. Some are just creators having fun with animation.
Arctic Monkeys - Do I wanna know?
This is one of my favourites, I love the simplicity, which eventually becomes pretty detailed.
Anna Meredith - Nautilis
Paul Buchanan - Buy a motor car
Samba - Loop
I find this animation very sweet, it's very character based. I feel like this gives the animation more personality which is an attractive feature.
Mika - Lollipop
This music video also seems to follow a narrative, it's a complete mixture of things. But this video stood out to me due to it's art style. it seems very original. Which again brings personality to the piece of work.
Here are just examples of each of these pieces of music in Adobe Audition, it shows the differences between each of there frequency displays. This is important for when I'm animating, as I can look at the frequency and tell exactly what the music does. When it starts, when it finishes.
Max Richter - Ember
There's no real big change throughout this song.
Queen - We Will Rock You
This piece is very consistent throughout, it all looks very similar. The rhythm is constant throughout.
Richard Strauss - Also sparch zarathustra
This famous piece of music has very dramatic sections, whereas a lot of is very mellow and slow. It is able to be very powerful in the sections where there is instruments due to it being so sudden and full on.
In this session we learnt about how we can use images that we've drawn, add it to photoshop to create a series and then add it to flash where we add a soundtrack.
I felt like it worked incredibly well, It's a new technique I wasn't familiar with. I can see if I need to use it when I decide what I want to do.
I know that I want to at this point in time create a animation with a lot of bass. So I researched songs that would fit what I wanted, I found that a lot of the bass I wanted was found in the intro.
The Beatles - Come Together
This soundtrack has a great riff to it, it comes about stronger when they're aren't lyrics.
Pink Floyd - Money
The first 20 - 30 seconds of this soundtrack is what I'm interested in, there seems to be a lot happening. But it's all very clear to hear, I can differentiate between each sound which would make it easier for me to animate.
Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure
This soundtrack has a nice simple iconic bass line, but maybe it's too simple? It's essentially all you can hear.I don't think this will be the deciding track.
Animating to music isn't new, many artists have experimented with this concept. Oskar Fischinger is one of them. Here are just a few example of his work.
Oskar Fischinger - Optical Poem (1938) (Film)
Oskar Fischinger 'Black and Blue' 1963
Oskar Fischinger 'Time Travel 2' 1949
Here are examples of both Len Lye and Norman Mclaren playing with the idea of sound with animation,
Len Lye - Free Radicals (1958)
LenLye - Rainbow Dance
I personally think this is great, it tells a story using animation with sound, I find this idea very interesting. I feel like it could be something I look into rather than just reacting to music by using shapes etc.
Norman Mclaren: Blinkity Blank (1955)
Unlike Rainbow dance this animation seems to just focus on how Norman Mclaren feels when he listens to the music. Which is what I feel I will do when I listen to the track I decide, but whether or not I decide to make that in to a story I will have to decide.
The first idea that came to mind was to create an animation to a soundtrack with a lot of bass, I'm a fan of daft punk and I thought that was would interesting due to their use of bass. I decided to look up just the bass for the song 'Around the World'.
Daft Punk - Around the World
Daft Punk - Around the world (Just Bass)
I wanted to get a feel for the bass, what could I do with it? What would it look like on flash? I wouldn't just use this audio due to there only being bass.
I imagined I would be using this method on flash to show the bass guitar strings, it shows the vibration that occurs when the string is plucked.
We had a quick tutorial on a programme called 'Audition', where we inserted tracks and got to grips with how to manipulate the soundtrack. This is because we will need a soundtrack for our animation, audition is one of the easier ways to produce one.
Here is a basic look of what the software is like featuring both a multi-track, non-destructive mix/edit environment.
Our final sound project will be produced using flash, because of this I have been having tutorials about the basics of the software. Here are just a few examples of what I produced..
Animators often work with pre-recorded sound; films such as Disney’s Fantasia are famous for
this particular area of expression. Animators can use sound stimuli and create literal narratives,
or they can attempt to reflect the sound in an abstract and emotionally responsive manner.
You will be required to review relevant examples of this genre of animation practice and relevant
practitioners including contemporary works. You will be given (or can choose) a 10 second
piece of music in an appropriate digital format and asked to analyse the music in terms of
rhythm or pattern, volume, instrumentation, timing and mood.
● Plan out how you will approach this project in relation to other concurrent projects
● Review key styles and methods of approach carried out by key professional animators
working in this area
● Create a ‘dope’ sheet analysis, including the items mentioned above for the soundtrack
● Design an animated visual sequence to reflect the emotional and/or perceived narrative
potential of the music
● Use Flash software to combine your musical and visual element
Your animation will be constructed in appropriate 2D digital animation software such as Flash.
Introductions to animation and sound analysis software will be timetabled.
In summary I will create an animated sequence to a set soundtrack
I MUST PRODUCE:
A digital 2D animated visual sequence - Of no more than 10 seconds with sound
(QuickTime Movie with sound
Research Portfolio - Reflecting on the results of the iterative process used to develop
your character and narrative concepts
Evaluation of 250 words - On the project and achieved outcomes
