Exploration #1 Breath Study

For this first exploration, I immediately knew I wanted to try hand-drawn animation. I also wanted to do something more abstract and freeform, both decisions straying from my usual art practices. I considered all the different materials I could use, and I ended up taking inspiration from an artist on Instagram. I felt drawn to the fine lines and could imagine the piece with movement.

First, I drew the background. I used three colours of pencil crayons, finding ways for the colours and shapes to overlap and flow throughout the page. I’m considering going over this, though, with darker colours to create more contrast and details.

Next, I started with the final drawing made with a red pen; from there, with each frame, I made the lines shorter and shorter. I used tracing paper to layer and see my previous frames and numbered each page.

To start, I ended with 12 frames and will use stop-motion animation software to put it together and see if I want to add more. These are my plans for the following week!

I did a test with the current background and frames to get an idea of the finished look and if there was anything I would want to add. I used Stop Motion Studio on my phone, though I quickly learned I am not great at keeping my phone completely still throughout shooting. Although I think the shakiness adds to the look of breathing. After the first test, I decided the background looked a bit boring and out of place; I wanted it to blend more with the bright red pen I used for the animation.

I went over the background with darker colours but was sure to leave my previous efforts still visible.

Finished Video!

I edited the look of the frames digitally, turning up contrast and exposure until I was happy with the look of the colours. I also layered a still image of the background over top with fluctuating opacity throughout the film, since I really liked the look of the background and wanted it to feel more prominent. I played around with different effects on that background as well, such as dissolve (which gave it a grainy effect), but found it was too distracting. I only recorded the breathing sound after the film was partially put together to get a sense of timing. I drew 12 frames and set the frame rate to 12fps.

Exploration #2 Animation & Foregrounded Senses

I kept coming across videos of people twirling large ribbons of fabric and was interested in replicating a similar movement for this exploration. For the sensation/action, I was lying in bed one morning, didn’t want to get up and just continued to get cozier and cozier in bed. I wanted to try to capture this feeling of your bed being the most comfortable it ever has been, yet also getting interrupted by the need to get up.

I wanted to try some stop motion, animating my bed sheets, and I will use this as a background for the additional animation I do. After shooting the footage, I edited it to have much higher contrast and be in black and white to make the colourful ribbons stand out.

I then traced the digital animation I did on tracing paper. Then coloured each one in (these aren’t every drawing).

I edited it all together, and here is the final work! Couldn’t say why it uploaded vertically. Initally the stop motion of my sheets was meant to be the same size as the ribbon animation, but for some reason it uploaded smaller and instead of resizing it I decided to leave it. I always intented the ratio to be a square and that both things would overlap but I think the background as the sheets being smaller looked interesting.

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Exploration #3: Technique-Led Experimentation

For this exploration, I decided to do some work for my film; this is mostly just a test of trying out different media/textures. I want to include some experimental and maybe traditional styles in my grad film; I’m using this exercise to help figure out how reasonable or possible this is.

First, I did a test animation of how I wanted the phone to transform. I wanted it to look as though it was bubbling up or inflating to take ultimately grow and potentially take over a scene (if it were to keep going). I started with the little blob on the left to get an idea of how the effects work. Then I drew a desk phone and tried to combine the effect.

I then wanted to layer on different textures and decided on photographing these patches of felt I own. The plan is to layer the different felt digitally to replicate as if I were to cut out each piece and put it together. In the end, I still feel it lacked a certain depth that would’ve been there if I had used the medium physically.

^ I especially love the texture of this grey felt

I compiled each photo of felt “cutting” it out to fit the shapes of the phone I drew. I tried to give slight shadows to the layers to make it resemble the physical media more, though I don’t think I was successful in keeping it looking like felt. The felt created really cool textures, but they just look like random textures. For the sound design, I used a phone ringing, and then as the phone distorts, so does the audio. I kept a still of the sketch and added a crossfade to further sell this transformation.