Final Animation Inspiration

Here I researched into one of my favourite title sequences. It relies heavily on the music and sets the tone for the film. I really like how crazy and all over the place the title sequence is. Because I have switched my idea for my title sequence, I want it to rely heavily on the music and also on create vibrant colours against a dark background.

Final Animation + Evaluation

This is my final animation. Unfortunately the sequence is too large to be uploaded to blogger, much like my other clips. I have tried to upload them to Youtube but it takes hours and eventually chrome crashes. 

Overall, I am happy with how my animation turned out. I am disappointed that I was not able to create the intial animation I had in mind, but hopefully in the future I will be able to create an animation of a similar style and format. I feel like the visual goals I made for myself were met, and I managed to create a textured and vibrant animation that also fits with the themes in the novel.

I feel like this is my weakest project so far because of the amount of technical issues that were involved, and also how my goals and aims weren't met. If I was to do this project again,  I would definitely invest in better equipment, such as a camera and better quality materials to ensure that I create the visuals correctly without any issues. I do feel disappointed in how I didn't get to experiment with new software as well. I also feel like my finished animation is not enough for the project. I would have like to of created a title sequence that had a lot more movement involved, but I feel as though the constant issues hindered my progress, and also because I wanted to simplify my animation down to fit with how title sequences look also made for a disappointing response.

I really enjoyed experimenting with different mediums and textures throughout my production stages. However, I feel like I didn't include a lot of documentation of these experimentations. I think that I should have blogged about each step that I took instead of blogging about the larger steps in my progress. I also need to get the hang of posting my blog posts in order.

I think that more research could have been done with the typography. Even though I am happy with the look of the text I created, I feel like I could have researched into typography further in order to create a more appealing text.  

Overall, I feel content with the animation that I created but I know I could have done better with various aspects of my animation.

Ending scene

This is the ending scene for my title sequence. From my research into title sequences, the name of the show always pops up at the end with the name of the creator underneath. I really like the way the name of the show looks. I decided to take a little bit of inspiration from the novel cover because I didn't know whether or not to have it in capitols. In the end I decided to have the name in capitols, and also created the letters with thicker lines compared to the previous names in the sequence.

My next step is to piece each clip together and also figure out what sound to have with it. I really want a loud and noisy song to be played over the top of the animation to fit with the loud colours and noisy movements of each frame.

Moon - clip

This is the finished moon clip. I again feel like I have gotten down the style that I wanted. I like the varying textures and also the drastic switch between each frame that creates the messy and crazy look. At this point I started to get the hang of using photoshop the way that I wanted to. I decided to create a new file to create this one, as the original one that I was using started to lag an awful lot because of the amount of layers and frames there were. 

My next step is to create the final scene where the name of the show will be at the centre of the screen.

Opening Scene

This is my final opening scene for my title sequence. I really like the colourfulness and the texture of each frame, and how they pop up on the screen in an expressive way. I feel like it is a good opening for a title sequence of this style as it fits with the hectic storyline.

Production diary 2

Because I wanted a lot of texture and sharp movements in my animated title sequence, I decided to create some textures to layer over the top of certain parts of my title sequence.

I decided to tears some black aper to create rough teaxtures to layer at the beginning of my animation because I want to create flashing, scratchy images for a couple of seconds at the beginning.

I quite liked the texture of the oil pastels when they were scribbled all over the page so I decided to do this a couple more times using different motions as well as different colours.

Overall, I feel like I have successfully created a couple of images that cane me layered over the top of each other on different opacities in order to created a scratchy and hectic intro to the title sequence, much like the novel itself.

production diary - 1st

Because I decided to switch mediums from oil paint on glass to oil pastels on black paper, I decided to document my process on developing my final animation. 

My process with my animation was using oil pastels on black paper to create a simple and effective image that related to the novel I am creating titles for. I decided to use black paper because I feel like using white paper can take away from the vibrancy of the oil pastels, and also I felt as though the black paper would create a nice texture in the animation. 

After scanning in the single image, I would them select the drawing and change the hue/saturation of the image and make about 4 variations of colours and vibrancies of the image. These would be a set of frames that would create a jittery and bright image. I then would re-work over the initial image in order to create another set of variations. I would do this about 4 times and each time created a different colour palette for each image and frame. 

I was initially just going to change the hue and saturation of each image without selecting the drawing, however, after doing this a couple of times, I notice the slight change in the shade of black in the background.It would have a strange purple or green tint to it. This mistake caused me to have to select the drawing itself carefully, and only changing the hue and saturation of that specific part. 

This is a screen shot of me altering the name of the actor that I would have next to the image. I found it time consuming to carefully select each letter to avoiding getting as much black as possible.

After a few times of this process, I eventually got the hang of it. I was constantly creating a few frames and looping them in order to create a test shot, so I could see the direction which the animation was heading in.

Final images

Here are my final designs for my final images. I created them using oil pastel on black paper in order to create a rough and uneven texture to the title sequence.

Sometimes, certain colours would show up dull against other, which caused me to touch up the colour, and switch the hue and saturation more than expected. 

Because I was mapping out each image using white pencil, sometimes the white pencil would show up a lot. I would have to edit it out of each image which was time consuming, but because the black paper was a strange and textured paper, it was difficult to rub the lines out without wearing the paper away.

Overall, I really like how these images turned out in the end. I also really like the texture that was created from both the black paper and the oil pastels themselves. 

I came to realise at this point that it would be a long process to scan in each image, and re-work over the top of the frames to create a jittery and bright effect in the animation, because of the amount of pressure to not mess up the frames each time.

My next step is to start my animation and also document the process.

Text experimentation

I decided to do some quick experimentation with each name in order to find the right composition of the names of the actors for my title sequence. Overall I liked the colour pay off of the oil pastels and I also enjoyed experimented with the size of the letters.

Here, I decided to play with the look of having the name written in chalk so the name stood out against the black background and also the image next to the text. I decided against this because I felt as though the white chalk would be too much. I then decided that the colour combination didn't matter so much because I would be changing the hue and saturation each time I scanned in the re-worked words. I decided the aim for writing the first and last names underneath each other and aiming for the to finish and start at the same width.

At this point I didn't realise that the hues of the lettering didn't matter so much so I was still experimenting with different colours. I was also experimenting with where the opposite colours would be placed in order to create a stark contrast.

I overall feel like the goals I was aiming for with this experimentation were met. I wanted to created rough and textured text with bright colours. I feel like this set of experimentation was important but also felt like it came easy because of the previous experimentation with the images of the objects, as I had already gotten the hang of what shapes and style I was aiming for.

My next step is to experiment with the placement of the text.

Test shot in oil pastels

Here, I decided to change mediums to oil pastels. I found it easier to use this medium because it wasn't as messy as oil paints, and I also really liked the texture that the pastels gave off.

I decided to create this test shot from an image I created whilst making a colour palette with the oil pastels. I quite like the pay off from the oil pastels, and how the colours are bright and stark against the black background. I will hopefully be able to leave the background as it is, because I like the texture that the black paper gives to the animation.

My next step is to create my final animation out of my developed concept images using oil pastels and black paper. I will constantly keep in mind the various colours I want to create and also the fact that it is a title sequence and not a full animation. 

I also need to experiment with the writing that I want the actors names to be in. I will do these in oil pastels as well, but I need to experiment with the composition as well and the colours and how the writing corresponds to the images next to them.

Visual Research - Key Images

I decided to figure out what significant images are associated with the main 4 characters. I also came up with random actors names to use in the title sequence.

I then decided to find simple images of these object and create simple and quick sketches of each image. I decided to focus on the cap and the bike in this section because I feel like I have done a sufficient amount of visual research into the gas mask and the moon face. 

Lou - Old Cap



I chose these images to work from because they are simple and also a little scuffed in certain places to fit with the scruffy character.

Here, I repeated what I had done with the sketches for the gas mask images because I like how fine liner looked in creating a scratchy and messy look to the images. I also used a continuous line technique in order to capture the line work I was aiming for. I did a test of what it would look like with a messy layer of colour, which has caused me to choose the 3/4 angle of the cap. This decision is mainly because of how the front view of the cap is boring and would be hard to capture using the simple lines that I want to use. I also like the 3/4 view because it would allow me to create a more dynamic image instead of just a front view of the image. 

Vic - Bike

I chose these two image because they were both profile views of a simple/ old style bike. I wanted to work from profile view because I feel like adding perspective would be difficult given the fact I am aiming to create simple images that are effective when layered after each other. 

Here I created different variations of the images using fine liner and the continuous line technique that I enjoy using. I feel like the bottom left image is the most successful because of the interesting and rounded shape, and also because of the vintage vibe it gives off too.

Hopefully, when I transfer these image to oil paints, they will create the images I want to create. 

Gas Mask studies

I decided to create some visual studies of different gas masks in different mediums and techniques in order to find an image and shape to use in my animation.

Here i used fine liner and a continuous line technique to try and create a misshapen, and flowing image. I quite like the shape of the first image because of the simple shading and bold shape of the image.

Here I looked at the idea of a gas mask with a hat. I feel like because I want my images to be simplified, the hate would be hard to depict when using as little shapes and lines as possible.

On the left, I created a design I was the most happy with. I liked the simplistic lines, and how it is clearly a gas mask. I then developed the image and used oil pastels to add colour in a quick and easy way. I like the colour combination because it is bright and fits with the style I want to create in my animation over all. I also like the sketchiness that is created from the oil pastels. I am hopeful that the colour pay off and shakiness of the lines is similar when I start to use oil paints on glass.

Overall, I feel like I have found the perfect shape for my gas mask image. My next step is to develop other images that relate to the characters in a similar style.

Oil Pastel test

I decided to create a test image of what oil pastels would look like on black paper. I experimented with what colours worked well over the top, and also what the final style of the images would be. I am disappointed that I am having to switch medium from oil paint to oil pastels, but I feel like it would be a better option as the texture shows up well.

I plan on creating variations of the images by layering different oil pastels, scanning them in and changing the hue/saturation to create further more variations of the image in different colours. I then would place them one after the other in order to create a hectic, bright and shaky movements between each frame. 

Storyboard final

After reviewing my last storyboard and concepts, I decided to simplify my designs and animation further in order for it to feel like a title sequence because the last few designs I did felt more like a short animation and not a title sequence. I decided to simplify the images down to key images that are involved in the story line such as key features of the characters in order to give a glimpse of the significant characteristics.

I decided to keep the background black in order to make the bright colours stand out more, and also to keep with the dark themes of the novel. I want the images that flash up to be expressive and scratchy to fit with the dark atmosphere I want to create. 

I'm not too sure what I want the music to be like. I'm hoping to find a piece of music that is loud and upbeat but also low in tone to fit with the animation and also the dark theme of the novel.

Overall, I feel like my storyboard clearly shows the atmosphere I want to create, and also involves colours and imagery that fit with the novel. I quite like the idea of having significant objects and images that are associated with the characters as the key focus of each frame. 

My next step is to create test shots of the animation using oil paints of glass, because I have never tried this technique before and I feel like it would fit with the messy theme. 

Process - Dragonframe - 2nd test

This was my second test shot using oil paints. I used the image of the as mask to link with the main character called "the gas mask man".

I wanted the image to be simple, but effective with the colours. I was aiming for this session to be the start of my final animation, however the oil paints still proved extremely difficult to work with, even though I created a thick layer of black acrylic paint for the background so the colours would not become mucky when painted over the top of the background. I feel like this decision was a good one because it intensified the colours. However, the actual image itself turned out bad. I attempted several versions of colours and compositions in an attempt to find the perfect images to use.


Here are a few of my experimentations. I eventually decided that the colour combinations were too dark because the oil paints I was using weren't the best quality, and the colour pay off was low.

Here, is a perfect example of the lack of colour pay off the oil paints have. Even though I would layer it on thick, the colours would lack vibrancy. The lighting was also a difficulty at this moment, even though my lighting set up was relatively okay.

This is me at the start of painting one of my frames. I ended up creating a cardboard stencil that I would draw around in white chalk in order to keep a consistent shape. I liked how the yellow looked against the black, but I couldn't get the camera to focus to take a picture. I was also aiming for the texture of the paints to be picked up a lot better. This is probably because of the lack of good equipment that I have.

Because the yellow seemed to pick up really well on camera, I decided to use the colour more. The purple I mixed didn't stand out as well, but this colour combination is something that I really like, and I feel like it would fit with my animation and colour scheme.

Here is where I attempted to swiftly create the images in hopes that when I played back the images in sequence, they would have a jagged, and messy look to them. However, the blue lacked vibrancy yet again.

I did not like the colour combination of this, and I feel like the lines are extremely sloppy. This is probably because at this point I was discouraged about how the images were turning out.

Here, I attempted to use acrylic paints in order to create vibrant lines. I feel like this worked a little better, however the paint was shinier than the oil paints which caused the light to reflect off the paint. At this point, I was contemplating switching mediums again and using something that didn't involve lighting as a main attribute to the process.

Overall, I feel like painting the mask as an outline looked childish and ineffective to the aim I wanted to achieve. I wanted to create an expressive and messy look to my animation, with simplistic lines, but the result was disappointing. I feel like I need to re-evaluate not only the medium, but the images themselves. 

I feel like I'm comfortable using paint to paint images, but I got extremely frustrated with the messiness of the oil paints and the lack of brightness with them. The background is also an issue, I wanted it to look more textured, but the lighting wasn't so great, so the texture didn't get picked up. I also found the camera frustrating. Because I've never used a camera like this, I found it hard to find the perfect focus on it. Eventually I got the hang of it, but the camera itself seemed battered and had a lot of technical issues in general.

I think that if I had more time, I would have created a more detailed version of the mask to animated for the few seconds it would be on the screen. I would have chosen higher quality oil paints, and also reconsidered the background colour.

I feel like it was a nice idea to use the technique of painting on glass, but because of the lack of funds for decent oil paints, the lack of good lighting and also an old and unfocusing camera, this idea failed.

I'm happy that I managed to experiment and figure out that this process is unsuccessful personally. I feel like I can create more detail in the drawings and also create better looking images for me to animate for my title sequence. Even though I want my images to be simple, I still want them to look effective, and I want them to have a gritty texture.

I feel like I want to be okay at painting animations, because I enjoy using paints like acrylic. I feel like oil paint at this moment in my academic years is too difficult to animate with because of how messy and time consuming it is. 

My next step is to reconsider my medium. I feel like either ink or oil pastel would be my best bet because it's slightly cleaner, and I feel that the images would be easier to edit in Photoshop than images that I've painted. I also think that using either ink or oil pastel will give me the opportunity to create gritty and scratchy textures.

Test shot dragon frame - Oil Paints

This was my set up for my animating process. I was initially going to use the black bin bag underneath the glass as the black background, but the glass was a lot more reflective that I initially thought. I decided to do my animation from home because I felt like the medium I was using would be too messy to use in one of the studios.

With the sheet of glass, I decided to do a textured and thick layer of black/dark purple oil paint as a base to cover the extremely reflective surface of the glass. If I was in a proper studio with better and consistent lighting, I feel like this layer wouldn't be needed.

I overall felt comfortable in the set up and was quite proud that wires weren't scattered everywhere and I didn't have to worry about ruining my work space with the paints.

This was my first test shot of Bing's mother. Unfortunately, because I'm using a trial version of Dragonframe, when I viewed the images in Photoshop, a watermark appeared. This was extremely frustrating. The pictures turned out an awful lot darker than when I had taken the images. 

From this image, I decided to add more light to my set up and also brighter colours to my animation. I also switched from using coarse paintbrushes to spatulas to pack on the oil paint. 

With these two shots, I decided to add vibrant colours and also a slight difference between the two. When I played them back in a gif, the difference made the effect that I was aiming for. I want my animation to have a bright and vibrant look, and also messy and expressive with a lot of darkness in the background in order to fit in with my book themes. 

I found it really difficult and frustrating because the background was made of black oil paint with a slight purple hue to it, which would mix with the colours I would layer over the top. This made my test animation inconsistent and messy to deal with.

Overall, I feel like this test animation was unsuccessful. It was frustrating having to deal with the colours mixing together to make mucky colours, which was the opposite to what I wanted. I feel like the image in general failed. The composition was difficult because I knew I would have to crop the size of the image when creating it into a short animation. I definitely painted the image too big. I will reconsider the size of my composition and image when creating my final animation.

My next step is to reconsider the image itself, because I plan on not having a lot of movement in the image, but many variations of the image compiled after each other to create a flickering look to it.

Crit Session - Feedback and evaluation

In this crit session I presented a series of extremely brief sketches that made up my initial storyboard. I created these sketches quickly as I was reading certain parts of my book in order to create visuals.

Matt brought to my attention the depth and how complicated my title sequence was. At the time I was unsure about the medium I was going to use, and later on decided to use oil paints and ink to create the look I was going for.

From this crit session I have come to understand that my title sequence looked more like an animation itself, and not a title sequence. I was also aware of the fact that it would have been an awful lot to animated given the time allocated, and also because it would be one person making the animation.

My next step is to look into more simplistic title sequences as well as artists that use paint to animate, and also re-evaluate my designs and concept in order to create more achievable goals.

Bing's mother sketches

One of the msot significant scenes in the novel, is when one of the characters has a dream of when he was a child, and waking up on Christmas day to find a man in a gas mask and his dads army suit, dancing with his dead mother to the song "White Christmas". I decided to include this image into my title sequence as it's a significant theme throughout but also doesn't give too much of the storyline away.

I initially used ballet dancers as reference photos because of the slender and limp poses. This sketch was a warm up sketch of me trying to grasp the shapes and lines of the bodies, and also experimenting with the mediums.

I tried not to focus too much on the detail of the face because my idea is to have a very abstract and strange feel to the title sequence. On the left I referenced a ballet dancer again in order to understand the shapes of the body, and also create an understand of the ark of the back in order for me to create a sense of weight to the limp body. On the left, I referenced a life drawing image. I tried to pay close attention again to certain parts of the body that would express a feel of lifelessness in the body. After this sketch, I realised that it would be too much to have the character obviously naked. I also realised that it would stray away from the imagery of his mother being dead and naked in a creepy mans arms. I came to the conclusion that I would create images that lacked detail in certain areas to make it less provocative.

Here, I attempted to create an image of a woman stood up right. I tried to have less detail in certain areas in order to give the impression of a limp and naked body, but not give too much away. I feel like I lost touch of the weight of the body because the pose isn't very dynamic. My next step is the focus on studying dynamic poses for me to develop my drawing practice of creating weight and limpness in the body.

2nd Story Board - Changed

After my critt session, I decided to contemplate the complicated shots that I was aiming for in my animation. It was brought to my attention that my idea was complicated, but I still wanted to aim for these complicated shots because it would give me an opportunity to try new software, as well as create a multimedia piece.

After researching into a lot more tv shows that weren't just animated, I decided to take a different approach. I created these quick sketches as an attempt to demonstrate what  I was imagining for the title sequence at that point. I noted that a lot of title sequences often have blank backgrounds, with abstract shapes and images floating and flashing on the screen. I applied this to the concept of the novel as well as including the imagery that I wanted to include into my animated titles.  

I stuck to using the significant imagery from the novel, such as the gas mask man slow dancing with his dead mother, as well as snowflakes and stars. I would want the animation to have a certain flow to it, but also have some jittery and scratchy movements. 

My next step is to create a developed storyboard of this.

Opening scene concept art

From the images that I took of woodland scenery, I created two different pieces of work based on these images, and created them using different mediums and also different styles in order to capture what I want my animation to look like.

I decided to use dark acrylic paints for this image. In my Visual Language module, I enjoyed drawings trees and eerie sceneries, so I decided to attempt to capture this again using acrylic paints. I liked how this one turned out, but it lacks depth and perspective. My aim was to create a clear and illustrative image and I think that I have created that vibe.  I liked the effect created from the chalk that I layered over the top, because it gives a wispy and ghostly feel to it. Even though I like how this one turned out, I feel like it isn't strong because of the lack of perspective. I feel like if I was to develop this image further, I would create layers of the scenery in order to create a sense of perspective.

I decided to go in the opposite direction with this one and create a foggy and abstract image. I wanted to create a contrast between the fogginess and the sharp lines created from the trees. I also wanted to create a sense of distance and perspective and also play around with colours as well. Because my last concept art was extremely dark and mostly black, I decided to use lighter colours as well as a plain brown background to see how the colours play against each other. I used watered down acrylic paints for this one, and used my finger to smudge the fog.

Overall, I am happy that I experimented with two different styles for the same scene. However, I feel like I want to aim for a more scratchy and messy style in my animation, with bright colours contrasting dark tones in order to fit with the dark theme of the novel.

Story board - Cleaned up

I decided to go back and clean up my first storyboard because I felt like my first one was too sketchy on not detailed enough. I decided to use the app called Penultimate because there is a storyboard template, and I would like to get into the hang of using resources to help me be more creative on the go with technology. I kind of liked how quickly I could get the sceneries down quickly but the app itself is limited with the tools and textures you can create.

Because I still don't know what Actors names to use, I left the spaces blank for where I thought the names should be throughout the title sequence. The orange bits of writing are a reminder for me to research into certain imageries. 

I'm still unsure about the style of my animation, but I know that the atmosphere I want to evoke is a dark one. This caused me to use the limited dark colours in the colour palette on the app.

Overall, I do like my storyboard, because I feel like the composition and shots are clear. I do feel like the animation will be a challenge because of how much is going on it it.

I think that I will experiment with different mediums such as oil paints and inks in my concept art. I think I will have to figure out what software is best for creating the swooping movements that I want to capture. Aftter Effects is a software I haven't used properly before and I think it would be a good idea to learn the software for this project. I will hopefully use Dragnframe to capture the painted/inked frames that I will make because I would like to create the animation on glass.

My next step is developing a colour palette and also creating concept art for the different scenes. I also hope to get feedback on my story board soon.

Charles Manx - concept art/Character Design

At this point in my process, I feel like Charles Manx is one of the main images in my title sequence, hence why I have done further visual research compared to my other images.

My aim with these sketches were to create a dark character, and attempt to capture the features of the character by paying close attention to the characters description. 

I feel like because it's just the characters face that is seen, I don't feel the need to create full character designs for the whole character. I feel like I should priorities my time and mainly focus on the imagery that will be seen in my animation and the features that are relevant to my animation.

I used various reference photos that I had accumulated using Pinterest. I closely referenced the famous character that Charles Manx is loosely based off to have a starting point for the shapes of the facial features. 

Because the eyes, nose and mouth are a constant visual focus throughout the novel, I decided to detail these features the most. The description for this character mainly focuses on the wrinkled and dark eyes, and the crooked and old teeth. Cracks all over the face is also a key feature.

I tempted to sketch the face in the shape of a moon, because this image is part of a key scene in the novel. One of the other main, psychotic characters has a dream and looks up at the sky and sees Charles Manx's face in the shape of a moon, which is the image I want to capture and have in my animation.

I attempted to develop the image further by using fine liner over one of my larger sketches. I quite like how the features themselves turned out, but the shape of the moon needs further development. Maybe by adding craters to the moon would give it texture. 

Because I'm still unsure as to what medium I want to use for my animation, I'm trying to keep my concept designs simple so I can work over them at a later time. I'm going to stick with creating designs using either pencil or black fine liner because I can create depth and stick with the dark themes.

My next step is to develop my sceneries and figure out what medium I will use for my animation. I also want to look over my storyboards, because I feel like they're still quite complicated given the timing of the animation.