Category: Digital Arts 2

Reflection: Overall I’m happy with the outcome of this project. It turned out better than I was expecting, I was able to achieve smoother and more cinematic stop motion sequences and with the help of João the editing and audio are much more detailed than I had planned. I think it fulfils the brief well, as its topic and style is centred around the theme of play. I chose the subject to be a game of chess which is an example of play that is enjoyed globally by adults and children. I was able to successfully combine digital and analogue approaches. I learnt lots of new digital softwares including Dragon Frame, Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Audition. I combined this with analogue media such as the paper cut out animations and stop motion. I think the combination of these approaches is fun, visually engaging and unique.

Adobe Audition is a software I have never used before and had absolutely no knowledge of so I was able to learn a lot from the session we had using it. Before we started creating the audio for the video we made a plan for what sound effects and audios we wanted at each part of the video. In the same way we did for planning the visual effects, we independently made a list of our ideas. Then we each shared our ideas and discussed them to create a joint list. The list below is our joint plan for the videos audio:

The hardest part was finding all the audios and sound effects we wanted. We got them from a range of places including YouTube, IMovie, BBC sound library and some of our own recordings. João was pretty confident with the software and I was able to pick it up pretty fast as it’s not overly complex to use. As a result of this we were able to create a more complex and advanced audio that we had planned. There’s lots of layers to the audio throughout with precise editing in terms of when the audios start and stop and how loud each layer is at what time. We were able to create the audio for the whole video in one session. Below is a photo from our Adobe Audition session:

The next post has the final video with the audio.

Prior to this project I only had a very basic knowledge of Premier Pro from watching demos and tutorials I hadn’t actually made anything on it myself. This was the first software that me and João used as it’s a video creation tool. One part that I was unsure about before was how to correctly set up folders on Premiere. If the media isn’t saved correctly Premiere won’t be able to load it when you next open it. This will delay the process and mean that they you need to go through and manually ‘link media’ 1 by 1. To save everything we created a folder on the desktop and then at the end of the session saved onto my OneDrive and his hard drive.

What we did on Premier was import all of the chess stop motion sequences and the GIFs of the 2D paper cut out. With this we put them all in the right order, adjusted the speed and duration of each sequence, adding the transitions we wanted. We were able to make some of the shots more cinematic and intense by using zooms and framing techniques. We also did some colour correction to some of the shots to make them look more vibrant and intense. This is a photo of our work on Premiere:

This is what we had made by the end of our session on Premiere Pro:

After reviewing the video we made on Premier there are some bits I was unhappy with and want to change before we start editing on After Effects. For example I want the scrunching of the paper to be faster as I think it’s currently takes up too much time and distracts from the flow of the video.

I have all the chess sequences and all the 2D cut out sequences so it’s now time to plan out how I want to edit the video. João, an animation student, joined me on this project to help with the editing of the video. This is really helpful as it will speed up the editing process as I won’t need to learn the software from scratch independently. This will allow for more ambitious editing and result in an overall better video. As João joined the project late and will only be helping with the final stages it allowed me to take up an art directory role, overseeing the production. We decided that all the editing would be done together so we could continuously bounce ideas off each other. Also I didn’t want to just hand the editing of the video over to him as I still want my vision to be seen in the editing it’s the perfect opportunity to learn how to use the editing softwares.

Below are mine and João’s plans for the editing and effects in the video. We each made one individually then had a meeting to discuss our ideas come up with a combined plan for how we want the video to look.

My Plan:

Joao’s Editing Ideas Storyboard:

Visual Effect tests: after discussing our ideas I began to test out some of the ideas by overlaying the animated GIFs of the 2D cut outs on some frames from the chess video to see how the 2 styles look together. Overall I’m really happy with the combination of styles. I thinks it’s a unique and fun blend of analogue and digital styles. When it comes to adding the effects onto the videos is after effects we will be able more precise about colour corrections and placement to ensure they feel a part of the scene and not just an effect stuck on top.

Movement lines experiments: inspired by Keith Haring’s art I want to add movement lines to some of the sequences. Specially scenes 1, 2 and 9. I tested out different brushes on Procreate and different types of dynamic lines. I really like the idea of having black movement lines for the white chess pieces and white movement lines for the black chess pieces. I think this contrast will be unexpected and more visually engaging. To get the lines to After Effects I will draw the line big in Procreate so it won’t be pixelated and export it as a PNG.

Studio session: to shoot the 2D paper cut out sequences I booked 1 day in the stop motion studio. I borrowed the same camera I used for the chess sequences, Canon 100D which I connected to DragonFrame using a USB cable. Instead of using a tripod I was able to attach the camera to a mount over the shooting area. In regard to lighting I only needed the 2 built in lights and just adjust the distances to get an even lighting.

Shooting these was a much easier process than shooting the chess sequences. I put down a green piece of paper to act as a green screen. Then I lined up the camera to the paper by looking at the live view on DragonFrame. I placed the asset in the middle and adjusted the focus to that area. I shot each frame using the onion skin opacity tool so the frames would be lined up, saving me time in post production.

Assets: this video shows all the sequences I shot in the studio of my 2D paper cut out assets.

Editing:

I removed the green backgrounds of each frame using Photoshop and did some basic colour correction to each to get a nice consistent look between each frame in the sequence and make them more vibrant.

Title: I chose the title ‘Long Live the Kings’ as it has an obvious link to chess that people will understand before seeing the video. Also I think it summarises the plot while also mocking the dramatic nature of the video because of the intensity builds up just for the kings to run away in fear. After the studio session I decided I decided I wanted to create the title of the project in a paper cut out style, similar to the countdown. For each word of the title I made 3 versions in order to create a fun, messy animation style with each letter changing on a loop. I didn’t want to book out the studio and equipment for just this one thing so I decided to try creating this at home. To do this I used my scanner and a contrasting coloured background. Then I did the same process of removing the background from each frame on Photoshop and altering the colour.

Animated GIFs: once I had each frame removed from the background and edited to improve the colours I created looping animated GIFs of each sequence using the animation feature on Procreate. I chose to use Procreate because it’s a program I’m comfortable with and it has a simple animation feature that is ideal for creating looping GIFs.

2 count down animations: for these I added a border to imitate ripped paper. This helps make them stand out and make the shapes more dynamic and unique.

4 fire animations:

4 smoke animations:

2D Stop Motion sequences:

4 graves: I made these images of graves using the paper cut out. I added the textured border and letters on Procreate. I decided against using the grave rising animations as I think they would draw too much attention in the scenes and distract from the main parts,

Stop Motion Academic Research: to supplement my general research I explored some academic texts around the subjects of Stop Motion animation and Chess. This type of research provides a different level of knowledge and helps to deepen your understanding of a topic. I used the information I learnt to help fuel my creativity and ideas for the creation of my Stop Motion project.

’The Blend of Reality and Illusion’- paper by Yizhao Gong:

Key Quotes:

“The contrast between the realism of the stop-motion technique and the fantastical nature of the story adds to the unique appeal of stop-motion animation compared to the omnipotent CGI.”

“Stop-motion animation is an animation in which a model poses an action according to a specific law, and the model’s action is shot frame by frame to form a sequence, which is then combined to turn into a movie.”

“The pursuit of real texture has injected fresh vitality into the character modeling of the stop-motion animation so that the audience can capture the realism of its presentation and bring a different visual feel to the animation.”

“When animating, designers not only work on the characters but also use lighting and other methods to create a fantasy world that is indistinguishable from the real thing. The setting environment plays a crucial role in creating the sense of reality in stop-motion animation. It is the specific space needed for the story’s development and an essential factor in showing the plot.”

“The perfect combination of sound and image can better express the author’s emotion. The introduction of effect sound can bring similar emotional experiences to people in different spatial and temporal backgrounds, so it is widely used in stop-motion animation creation.”

’Where will stop Motion animation take us next?’- Medium article:

Link to article : https://esmeprasad.medium.com/where-will-stop-motion-animation-take-us-next-412c5d0d51c7

‘Humpty Dumpty’s Circus’ by Albert E. Smith:

‘The Phantom Carriage’ by Victor Sjöström:

’King Kong’ by Willis H. O’Brien:

Chess Research: I did some in depth research on chess, specifically on its history and its importance in art and literature. I don’t think this level of knowledge is necessary for the creation of my project as it’s not a historical or factual piece, it’s has more of a fun and silly tone. However, I find the game interesting and wanted to explore more about its history and significance. Below are my notes from the research:

Oldest chess piece discovered:

‘Through the looking glass’ by Lewis Carroll

During the reading week I booked out one of the bays in the stop motion for the week to shoot my stop motion sequences. I booked it out for the whole week to give myself plenty of time as I will be learning on the go and am unsure exactly how long it takes to shoot stop motion. I used the first day primarily for hiring out all the necessary equipment, learning how to use and set it up and getting comfortable with actually shooting a smooth stop motion sequence.

The equipment I hired out was a Canon 100D camera, a tripod, a dedo light and a focusing lens for the dedo. I borrowed all of these for the week from the media stores. There was also 2 big lights, 1 in each side of the table that was already setup in the studio. Setting everything up was a long process that took me the first day to get comfortable with. Cable management was important as there was so many wires that I had to carefully organise them to avoid a safety hazards. Once I put the camera on the tripod, I connected it to DragonFrame on the computer using a USB cable. This allowed me to see a live feed from the camera. This helped with framing and meant I could crop the view to the correct dimensions, 16:9. With the camera and lights all set up it was time to organise the sets and start shooting the sequences.

Photos from the studio:

Set up from scene 1:

Set up for scene 2:

Set up for scene 5:

Set up for final shot:

1 frame from each shot: Before going into the studio I made a plan for how I wanted each shot to be visually but I adapted these plans when I was there due to restrictions caused by the equipment or improvement in my ideas. This part of the project was fully controlled by me so I had complete creative freedom. In regard to the backgrounds and sets I wanted minimal designs but bright, eye catching colours, inspired by Handy Martian. I chose this style so the focus would be on the movement and pieces and not have too many distractions. I wanted to make the changes in colour, lighting and camera angles interesting to the viewer. Also I want to add effects to some scenes in the editing so these will help make the scenes more engaging.

Scene 1: Game begins: The opening scene show the start of the game , where pieces begin to move at a steady speed, shot in 24 frames per second. For scene 1 I chose to have simple, balanced lighting coming from the 2 studio lights. I chose the background to be blue so it’s a cool, calm colour so that the video starts at a low intensity. The camera angle is from slightly above to get a good view of the whole board. I had to reshoot this scene a few times as I initially struggled to get the movements smooth. I was able to achieve the smooth movement I wanted by moving the pieces at smaller increments.

Scene 2: Battle: I wanted to have a big contrast between scenes 1 and 2 to get across a dramatic increase in intensity. The game has gone on and in scene 2 you see several pieces get knocked over. When shooting the sequence I made sure to adjust the focus to the area of the board that the battle was happening so that in editing I can zoom into that area and it won’t look blurry. This scene is also in 24 frames per second but during the editing I may slow down the pieces falling for dramatic effect. The way I made the pieces fall was using blue tack and slowly moving them down. This worked well, the only issue being that at some points it was visible which is something I’ll need to hide with editing and effects. I shot this scene at a lower angle, with dimmer lighting and an intense orange background. These changes make the scene feel more intense.

Scene 3 and 4: Graveyards: scenes 3 and 4 show the piles of fallen pieces from the back and white sides. I chose to make the scenes identical in composition to show how the game was very even. The focus of the scenes are the fallen pieces but they are static so to make the scenes more interesting I added pieces moving in the background. They move at a slow frame rate to achieve a slow motion effect. The camera angles were very similar to scene 2 and had only a slight shift in background colour, shifting to a more intense orange which ended up appearing more red due to the lighting. The big compositional shift was the lighting, I made the 2 studio lights very dim and used the dedo light with the focusing lens to achieve a spotlight on the fallen pieces.

Scene 5: Face off: this is the face off scene that happens when all the pieces have been knocked down except the kings. I wanted this scene to be very cinematic and continue building up the intensity. In this scene the 2 kings move towards each other, the movement is very simple in this scenes so I had to really focus on getting it smooth. For this scene I zoomed in more and turned down the studio lights meaning most of the light was coming from the dedo light. This created a nice dramatic spot light that the pieces moved in to.

Scene 6 and 7: Intense shadows: scenes 6 and 7 are increased intensity face offs. I chose to make these fast paced scenes so there wasn’t too much of the video focused solely around the face off between the kings. I didn’t plan these scenes, they were improvised on the day. The ended up being some of my favourite shots due to the cinematic lighting and shadows. To achieve this I completely turned off the studio lights so all the light came from the dedo which allowed for these nice shadows to be cast on the bright red background. The movement of this scene is interesting as it’s the only scene that the pieces are stationary, it is the board that I moved to create this sense that the camera is rotating around the board.

Scene 8: Lights off: this is a short scene that comes at the climax of the building intensity. There is no movement in this scene, the only thing that happened is the lights slowly fade out to compete darkness. The aesthetic of a complete continuation of scenes 6 and 7 with the same camera angle, lighting and background. I struggled to make the lighting fade out smoothly so I will have to fix this during the editing.

Scene 9: Running away: this is the final scene of the video. I wanted there to be a huge shift in intensity and composition between this and the previous scenes. I built up the drama across the previous scenes which reached its peak at scene 8. Then this scene would remove all of that to show how over dramatic the other scenes had been. In this scene the 2 kings end their face off and erratically run away from each other because they’re too scared to battle. I wanted this scene to be funny and contrast the tone of the rest of the video. I removed the intensity by going back to the camera angle and lighting from the opening scene. I chose yellow as it’s a far less intense colour than the orange and reds I’d used previously so it’s another way of showing the reduction in drama.

Reshooting scene 9: Running away: I went back another day to reshoot scene 9 as I was unhappy with it. I felt that it was too short and there wasn’t enough movement. In the new version the scene lasts double the time and the kings move much faster and more chaotically around the board eventually reaching back to their start position where they start frantically spinning. I think these changes help to translate the silliness of the scene and the fear of the kings better than the first version.

Videos: when I finished shooting the scenes I saved the whole DragonFrame folder onto my drive, this included the image sequences and the videos. I downloaded the videos on my iPad and make a few quick test videos on iMovie.

1.This video is just the scenes put together in order. It has no editing or changes in them, this is exactly how they where shot with DragonFrame.

2. In this video I adjusted the speed of some of the scenes to help make the whole video flow better.

3. I began to experiment with the audio, just using iMovie sound effects to start getting a sense of where I wanted sound effects and what kind of audio I wanted to go for.

Reflection: I learnt so much during my time shooting these stop motion sequences in the studio. I learnt lots about using equipment such as Canon Cameras, and different lighting which I’m now comfortable with. I found learning about and using DragonFrame particularly interesting as this is an industry standard software that I’m confident with setting up and using. My technical and practical knowledge of stop motion animation improved so much and I was able to create scenes that were better than I had initially planned in terms of cinematography and quality of animation. The next step for this project is to start creating the analogue assets to use as effects in the video.