Final Animation

So here it is! It took a lot of hard work animating into the wee small hours of the morning and painting and cutting out all the sets by hand, but it was all worth it! :

 
The Isle from Allie Oldfield on Vimeo.

Sets and things

Here are a few images that I took of the sets, the quality isn't great as I took them on my phone because I was using my camera for filming, but I hope the process is clear! I had to make each set each time, so once I dismantled it I couldn't shoot it again as getting every tree in the exact same place would be near impossible, so I had to make sure I was happy with what I had shot afterwards. A bit nerve-wracking! 

Odds and Sods

Making all the sets has taken me a very long time, from painting every tree to cutting out the last mountain by hand, this has definitely been an intensive project! Here are a few images of the final storyboard and other things I've done so far:

 

I was told during a critique that my visuals were right but the story had to be cemented. So here it is! After thinking about narrative theories (Todorov and Propp mainly) I realised that there had to be a motivation for the main character to go on his travels. So like my 5-year old self he collects shells and trinkets on the beach and discovers a gigantic shell that is taken from him by a mischievous dragon, and thus his journey begins to retrieve what is his!

It seems I might have to cut out the giant scene, as so far test animating him has been difficult due to his cumbersome size; I'm a bit disappointed as I liked this scene but that's the joys of film making I suppose!

Also here's a test I made for the intro, I re-did it because the lighting wasn't right, but hopefully this will give an idea of what the animation will be like!

Music

So obviously music is an important factor in a film, it sets the pace and the tone, and from looking at my animation so far I knew I needed something with a good pace and wasn't too slow and that gave the animation a lighthearted tone. At first I found a site called Soundofpicture.com which had a lot of instrumental music on it classed by moods, which was an excellent resource. I was fond of this song http://soundofpicture.com/MP3/Curious/Curious.mp3 but felt it was too much like a video game soundtrack and I wanted something more organic to complement the hand made themes. 

The music of my animation came to me whilst I was listening to the band 'Iron and Wine' which had a lot of bango and guitar on it, and after searching on spotify for instrumental banjo music I found a perfect instrumental banjo/guitar piece by Rev. Gary Davis of the Maple Leaf Rag. I can't find an exact video of the song but the tune goes kind of like this: 

Gif testing

I have made some gifs to test certain aspects of the animation. The first shows the main character on a boat journey. Animating water is very tricky, and this needs a lot of polishing as its too jumpy to meet the 12fps that I'll be shooting to, however I'm happy that it worked out as a whole and I'm looking forward to finessing it.




These ones test how the trees will pop up, I still need to play around with this as I'm planning to pan across with the character walking with the environment popping up as new elements are explored. Trees will be the hardest as they are quite flimsy, but I think I'll be able to manage it when I've done some more tests. 

Cut outs

Here are a few images from the past week showing the sets I have been creating. I love the amount of depth I can create with these sets and I'm excited to see the characters/creatures being immersed in them. 

Inspiration

Jon Klassen always seems to be a constant source of inspiration for me, his work perfectly encapsulates the experience of a place almost suspended in time, a romanticism of Canada's outdoors. 

'The Road'. 

Here's a video he created with animator David OReilly, I love the atmosphere created in this, its very ethereal. 

 
 
Black Lake from David OReilly on Vimeo.

This video directed by Ned Wenlock for Danger Beach's 'Apache' is really refreshing, it has a wonderful flow to it, and I love the new environments winding out of the animation. The animation has traditional elements in it as if all the features are being rolled out, this isn't something I've seen before in a digital animation but it's a very captivating approach. 




Andy Kehoe is another inspiring Illustrator that I've stumbled across recently. His creatures he creates are beautifully situated in their mystical environments; its as if the viewer has stumbled across a secret moment, unbeknownst to the creatures within. 

'Profound Encounters Amid the Forest Deep.'

'Speak Again in the Deamlands.'

 'Isle of the Floating Moon.'

Here is a music video for Bon Iver's Song 'Holocene'. I love it when video and music work in perfect representation of another; the video was directed by NABIL and shows a boy exploring the vast landscapes of what I think is Iceland. Again there's the theme of romanticising nature and the exploration of a place, themes that I'm interesting in including in my work.