Update 3

I had a few hours in the animation suite today and managed to do about 2000 frames before I just about froze to death! It was very cold in there and unlike when working with stop motion I had no big studio lights to warm me up. It sounds very trivial, being cold, but actually it did stop me working for as long as I was planning to. My fingers and toes were numb, and numb fingers do not help with this kind of animation. If this problem persists I may have to take in a hot-water bottle or at least wear another layer of clothing as it really got in the way of my work today.

I found that there were rather a lot of frames I had to take out due to getting my hand/paintbrush/straw etc in the shot. This is an issue when you use the time-lapse facility instead of pressing the button yourself. Hopefully removing the frames wont disrupt the animation too much.

I enjoyed the 'doodling', this time trying to include memories/incidents from my 'Black book'. It was my aim today to work on the content for the middle (ego) panel which is concerned with memory and perception. I tried to give my animation some narrative structure in that I attempted to follow the time-line of my own life. I like to just scatter the solids (in this case glass beads) onto the surface of the glass and try to work from that. Today I wanted the first image that I formed to be that of a tree. The first nightmare I ever remember having was of an apple tree growing on my bed with the roots winding around my feet, ankles and legs until I couldn't move. I would wake up and for a second I could still see the tree on my bed. I had this dream quite a few times and I remember it vividly, so it seemed apt to start with my apple tree.

Tree


Tree breaking apart



I split the tree in two thinking that it could symbolise the break up of my parents. They faced away from each other and moved apart, I then created a figure in between the 'parents' who looks from one to the other before one parent leaves her and the other one frightens her.











I felt fairly emotional when this part of the animation came up, it reminded me of how lonely I felt when my Mum threw me out and made me realise that it wasn't until I met Duncan that I actually felt secure. I've had to cast my mind back during this project to really think about my emotions during this difficult time. To be honest living at home with my Mum was actually as bad as being homeless, if not worse so there were quite a few years when I felt lonely and desperate that I can draw on for the purpose of this project.



I don't want the animation to be too gloomy, after all it is about a journey and personal growth as much as it is about the events that occurred. There were always glimmers of hope even in my worst moments. A night out with friends, sexual encounters, a good drawing, people being nice to me, all of these things helped get me through so they should also be included. The ego panel isn't the place for any real negativity, I will save my vitriol for the shadow.










I didn't notice until I got home that the focus lock wasn't on so the camera kept changing the focus, also the lights in the light-box were fluctuating quite a lot. Usually if the shutter is open for about 1 second this eliminates the flicker but in order to get the contrast right I had to drop the shutter speed as I was using glass beads on a white background.

This is the stage in which to make my mistakes as I am really looking at how to develop the imagery, in essence how to get from one scene to another. It's a little like rehearsing for a play, as long as I practice and develop the animation. The early outcomes are deemed a success or failure depending on how much I have learned from the experience not whether the animations themselves are 'perfect'. I will likely end up with a number of animations which will each have their own positive qualities as well as points which haven't worked.

I feel good about what I achieved in the 1st real session and I am booked into the room on Friday too so I get a day to consider the outcomes before I rework the animation. I will make sure the focus lock is on and also have a look at which noise (there are three noises) means that the image is being captured as I think I am not getting out of the way fast enough when the camera is on the time-lapse function. I discovered that using the washing-up liquid with the oil and pigment can have some interesting effects. If I use quite a lot of pigment with a little oil to make a thick mixture I can use it on top of the washing-up liquid to make a definite line.

The way that the detergent and oil behave together is nice to work with. The substances resist one another instead of mixing which allows me to isolate the pigment and 'draw' in the liquid. This is definitely something that needs to be explored further.

Ego 1
You can clearly see that I had problems with the focus as well as the light-box. I am having to animate for panels that will be portrait as opposed to landscape so I have to animate this way up, you will just have to turn your screen on it's side to view!



I am getting to know my medium well now so I feel that there has been a little more skill involved in the manipulation process. I have to be careful not to get the paintbrush or fingers in shot. I feel that the end part, when the rice is introduced is the weakest part. I would like to bring Duncan's presence into the animation but I don't like the style or how literal the figures are. I think it loses some of it's appeal when the rice appears so I won't use that again. The glass beads were effective though so I will get more of those for Friday. I brought some paint pigment to work with today so will try that out tomorrow too.