This is a hat i design on photoshop.

Final design

developing character.

this is my design of my old man.

developing characters.

For my character design i have been looking at a fat farmer. i had been looking at the outfits that farmers would wear and finding out the sterotyipcal personalities that farmers would have. While looking at the farmer have decided to change my idea, thought this project i know i will be changing my ideas a lot so i decided to write down every change i make. 

Instead of an old farmer i will be designing an old man, this old man will have the same features as the farmer such as a round body with big arms and legs.  

developing characters

These are sketches i drew for ideas of my character, i decided to draw one fat and small and the other tall and thin this is just to experiment to help me decided what i prefer.

The feed back i got given was helpful, because i knew what worked well and what didn't, with the help of hannah who review'd my ideas.

For all my ideas the feedback i got back was all positive, i didn't get any negative criticism. The feedback is helpful as i know i can use any one of my three ideas and they will work.

Dot animation process. 

Dot is an stop frame animation advert to advertise Nokia new phone.

The new phones allows owners to capture images of microscopic footage. The reason behind the animation dot is to show the new piece of technology, the makes of the advert were Aardman. Aardman to the challenge of creating the worlds smallest stop frame animation. Firstly they made a small model called dot standing at only 9mm. She was made on a 3D printer and was then painted under a microscope. As dot was really small they made 3 different replacements for each pose incase she was to brake, there was 50 different poses. Each model of Dot was stuck to thin rod of wire, which abled the creators to move her around. Once the filming was all done in the post production meeting a black plate was used digitally to remove the wire from the frame. The set was a flat table, the phone was placed directly above the set.  Roughly it would take one made a whole day to film only 4 seconds.

Peppa Pig

Peppa pig is a british preschool animated television series.

Peppa pig was created on a piece of software called CelAction 2D, this programme can produce dimensional animations. This programme is also very easy for animators to get used to and only takes a couple of weeks to learn how to use it. To create one episode takes roughly a week to make, with the help of 30 members. The creators start with storyboards to get an idea of what the episode will contain.

South Park

South Park started with storyboards, and design department which is were every idea, joke and character is captured. A script is wrote and the camera shots planned. The creators get an hour per page.
Once drawn the character  a side, back and birds eye view image would have to be created. When the characters are designed they are sent of to be lipsinked, this makes the character look the same but makes there mouth moves to look like they are talking. other features of the characters are also moved such as arms, legs, head and body.

Each show takes 120 hours per week to completely.

BEAR WALK CYCLE

ANIMATION PROCESS FLOWCHART

1. Idea, Brief, Treatment and Production planning.

This is the pre production phase, first you have one idea then have a written treatment to sell the project, write a script then pitch the concept, once this is all done you can start putting your crew together.

2. Concept Design. 
Concept design normally starts during the pre production phase. This is the first stage of design, giving enough time to experiment with characters.

3. Storyboarding. 
The director works closely with the artist who design the storyboard, this is so the director can visualise the script and tell the story. The storyboard will be revised and able to be changed if and when its needed. The easy the storyboard is, the easier the production process will be.

4. Production design and visual development.
The production designer will develop the style of the production. They will also create the final design for the characters. Most of the design will be drawn, even if the final animation technique is different.

5. Recording the dialogue.
The producer and director will cast the voices and the director will be there for the recording session. The script will be voiced over all in one session if possible. However some producers like to work with the actors individually and assembling the dialogue.

6. building models and rigging. 
When the design has been approved modellers will copy the drawings and start building models of the characters and enviroment. Riggers will create a moving skeleton or structure before the models can be animated this is done to provide working parts which allows the animator to move the model.

7. Layout and Animatics.
The purpose of the layouts is to stage every scene and camera set up. Layout are created based on the storybook and previous approved design material, such as Camera movements, Visual information about the back and character action.

8.Animation.
Animation starts when the layout is approved. The director and animator will assign scenes to animators who produce the images which create the illusion of movement, there can be just on animator depending on how big the project is.

9.Final background and colouring. 
In 2D, the colour in the background ban be produced form the layout onwards, they reflect the production designs. In stop frame the set will have been made before the animation could even start. In 2D paper animation this is normally scanned and cleaned up on the computer before colouring using several software packages.

10.Light and compositing
A crucial stage in the creative process is the lighting. Compositing is applied to all techniques of animation. this is also the point at which visual elements are included in animation, background, and effects to the final image.


11. Post Production
The music will be recorded while the post production is happening. After this the sound effects are added to the final soundtrack. the digital picture and the soundtrack are then combine, then can be output to broadcast or onto a film

Pixar

The History of Pixar.

The company we know today was formed after Steve Jobs bought the computer graphics division of George Lucas's company 'Lucas film' in 1986, founding Pixar.

Prior to this, George Lucas's original idea behind his Lucasfilm computer division and graphics department was to create state- of - the - art  computer technology for the film industry. The Vice President of  Lucasfilm computer graphics group, Ed Catmull  then became the chief technical officer at the newly formed Pixar where he was one of the key developers of the RenderMan rendering system used in films such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

In 1983 while working at Lucasfilm, Ed Catmull met up with an old friend John Lasseter, whilst they were both visiting a computer graphics conference in Longbeach, California. After this chance meeting and before the day was out, John Lasseter had agreed to work with Ed Catmull at Lucasfilm in the computer graphics group, which resulted in their first computer animated short film 'The adventures of Andre & Wally B' which was completed in 1984.

In 1986 after Steve Jobs purchased Lucasfilm computer graphics group from George Lucas, the company then employed a total of 44 people including Ed Catmull as Chief  Technical Officer and John Lasseter as an Executive Producer, overseeing all of Pixars films and other projects.

Over the next three years Pixar went on to create short films, such as Red's Dream, Tin Toy and Knick Knack. Tin Toy went on to receive the first  Academy award for a computer generated movie.

The next big step Pixar happened in 1991, when Disney and Pixar announced an agreement to make at least one computer generated movie. In 1995 the first computer generated movie was released, this was 'Toy Story'. In 1998 'A bugs life' was then made. In the year 2006 Pixar was bought by the Walt Disney Company.

As previously mentioned Pixar have made numerous short films. The Pixar we know today are known for big production blockbuster animated movies of the family and children movie genre such as, Toy story, Cars, Finding Nemo, Monsters inc and many more. These movies tend to be very uplifting, often making the viewer look back on their own happiest childhood memories and fantasies, often with wonderful characters that children and adults alike can relate to. My own personal favorite is The Toy Story trilogy because, it reminds me of the bonds between me and my toys as a child, some which i still have and others which are sadly long gone. Of how Andy grew up, went to school, then on to college as i have done.

In 1996 at the 68th academy awards Toy Story was presented the Academy Special Achievement Award for the best animated feature film, as a result of Pixar's development and techniques, making it possible for the first feature length computer animated film. Since then academy award winners have included Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Rattouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, Brave and most recently Frozen.  

In more recent times Pixar have branched into advertising, creating adverts such the new Sky Fibre Broadband television advert.

The style of Pixar animation tends to include very bold bright colours, everything we see on the screen is pleasing to the eye, from the characters, to the entire worlds created. This is done while trying to keep a real sense of reality and believability. The characters are often voiced by well known actors to emphasise this. The worlds created by Pixar such as landscapes, the oceans, lakes and rivers are all a result of Pixars advances in animation techniques. Pixars development of the rendering system Renderman has allowed animators to create realistic textures such as skin, hair and fur, light and shade, water with realistic reflection and movement, and given animators much more freedom than just a flat image. Renderman is now available buy as a tool for private animators for colleges/universities, advertising companies and also offered as lessons in rendering.

ANIMATION PRODUCTS RESEARCH

FILM - Finding Nemo  

May 30th 2003. Disney Pixar. Directors - Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich. Pixar have also made Up, Cars, Toy Story, Monsters inc and The Incredibles.
 Finding Nemo is computer generated. The target audience is to everyone, young children old adults even teenagers. The purpose of the animation is to entertain. I like Finding Nemo as it isn't just based for young children its aimed for everyone to watch and enjoy.

SHORT - Paperman 

2012. Paper man was created by Walt Disney and directed by John Kahrs. Walt Disney have also made Marry Poppins, Bambi, The jungle book and Peter pan. Paperman is a 3D hand-drawn computer animated. The target audience i think is for older couples, as it isn't really funny nor entertaining so younger children wouldn't really watch it. Purpose is to inform older couples of true love. 

TV SERIES - Spongebob 

1999. Stephen Hillenburg is the creator of spongebob. Spongebob is a hand drawn animation, the target audience for Sponge bob is young children, the humour is funny which would make young children laugh. The purpose is the entertain and tell the story. I like the humour in spongebob.

WEB SERIES - Asdf 

Asdf was created by a youtuber called Tom Ridgewell, he is a London illustrator. The first episode was created August the 10th 2008. ASDF is a 2D computer generated. His channel was created on May 30th 2006, and his account has over 114 million, and for approximately 58,146 views a day. Tom Ridgewell has also made GIFFS swell as series.

I like the fact it is easy, as the character are stick men and its black and white.

MUSIC - Gorillaz Clint Eastwood

 The song Clint Eastwood came out in March 2001 this was the first single from there album. The title of this song was named after a actor from 'the good, the bad and the ugly' due to the similarity in theme.  The song is a mix between electronica, dub, hip hop and rock.

The single has sold 480,000 copies in the UK according to that official charts company.

ADVERT - John Lewis christmas, The Bare & The Hare 

The John Lewis christmas advert was found to be the most discussed socially for 2013. This christmas advert had 212,000 mentions on twitter, compared with 38,000 for the Sainsbury's 'Christmas in a day'

The John Lewis Christmas advert was found to be the most discussed socially for 2013, although its rival Sainsbury's had to most emotionally engaging Christmas advert, according to research by We Are Social.

Sapceship Gif

to create this gif i did the same thing with my video gif, i imported this file by clicking on import then 'video frames with layers'. This image was a still photo, i made the space ship look like its moving by on each frame moving it upwards a little bit. One the first layer all you can see is the number 3, then on the second layer you can see the 3 and the 2. As you go up each frame you will see more on the image. so final at the end when you press play all the layers will come up one by one. 

As you can see in this image i have put al the layers into a contact sheet, this shows each layer and the context on them. 

Video Gif

VIDEO GIF - I created this gif in photoshop. firstly i downloaded a clip of youtube and imported this clip into photoshop. 

Before importing you have to make sure you click on the 'videos frames with layers' this separates the short clip into different layers. 

once your video is imported all you have to do is change the seconds per frame which is below the timeline.