More Wall Experiments

This is another wallpaper experiment I did, however with this one I pasted it onto the brick wall as the other wall was boarded.

The technique works great. There was just one issue about pasting it onto the wall without it getting any dirt onto it and since the whole place is dirty I wasn't sure how to come around this issue. Therefore, to solve this issue I thought it would be wise to paste the wall and then stick the cutout to it. This way the result would not get much dirty attached to it.

After attaching the cutout to the bricked wall, I thought i would attach it to the other wall, which I was working on yesterday. The photograph below shows the result of the cutout onto yesterdays cutout.

I must admit that this does not look so good. The cutout of the grass which I pasted onto the wall yesterday caught a lot of dust from the brush I was using, therefore it kind of blends with the wall, and the cutout I pasted today doesn't. But when I use this technique for my main piece I know what I need to do.

Wallpaper Experiment

This is a quick video made from photographs taken as I was doing the wall experiment.

Wallpaper Cutout

Close up of cutout pasted onto the wall

Full view of cutout pasted onto the wall

This is just a beginning experiment for the wallpaper pasting idea. I will be add a few more cutouts to the wall as the grass doesn't quite work on its own. However, the wallpaper pasting technique works well and I think I will use this technique for my final piece but also include projections of drawings that will add detail to the wallpaper cutouts.

Chosen Room Location

These are photographs taken of the room that I have chosen in the abandoned house.

The following photographs also explain how I have planned out the Seasons in the room.

The left corner of this photograph will be Winter moving across the right to Spring.

The corner in the centre of this photograph will be Spring going onto Summer.

This wall is going to be Summer, hence the two windows.

The corner in the centre of this photograph will be Summer going onto Autumn.

The left side of this photograph is Autumn, and Winter moving across to the right side.

Spray Paint Experiment

This is a quick video of photographs taken as I was doing the spray paint experiment.

End Result Photograph

First image taken of the experiment

Close up

This is the spray paint wall experiment. This technique does work well, especially for the much bolder areas of the animation if used this technique. However, this technique cannot be used for detailed areas of the piece that I intend to make.

Visuals of Nature

I have started to sketch out some visuals for the animation. I have not decided whether these would be drawn directly onto the walls or projected.

These two sketches are of wall-climbers.

Media: Watercolour Pencils & Charcoal

Media: Dark & Light Charcoal & Watercolour Paints

Wallpaper Tryouts

As I have decided to have a mixture of drawing techniques, I thought of trying out different types of media onto different types of wallpaper. This experiment will help me choose which type of media would work best for the piece.

Material: Cardboard__ Media: Spray Paint

Material: Wallpaper__ Media: Gesso & Acrylic Paint

Material: Pattern Wallpaper__ Media: Pastels & Charcoal

Material: Pattern Wallpaper__ Media: Acrylic Paint, Thick strokes

Material: Textured Wallpaper__ Media: Ink, fine brushed strokes

Material: Textured Wallpaper__ Media: Spray paints, stencil technique

Material: Slightly Textured Wallpaper__ Media: Charcoal

Material: Textured Wallpaper__ Media: Acrylic Paint, quick thick strokes

After doing these experiments, I went to my chosen location and realised that there isn't actually any sort of wallpaper on the walls. It is just bricks and boards, therefore I will experiment with materials directly onto the walls and see which would be perfect for my piece.

Improvement of Idea

From discussion and feedback from tutors over the last couple of weeks, I have developed my idea and decided on what style I would use for my piece.

My new idea for my animation piece is going to be a mixture of hand drawn images that would project onto the walls of the abandoned building as well as draw physically onto the walls in certain areas. I will also include objects such as snow, leaves etc to add a sense of realism to the piece.

This image is a rough visual of the piece, without the objects.

Update to Storyline of Animation

I have changed the storyline of the animation slight. The theme of the animation will still be nature and it will still be based on the seasons. However, to make this an interesting piece, I have decided to make a video footage, faking a break in into the abandoned house and snooping around all the rooms. The video then would show a source of light in one room. The light is coming from a bottle that has been on a window-ledge for quite some time. The bottle is then by accident, dropped off the ledge and everything that bottle holds is unleashed into the room... this would be the end of the video footage, for now.

Within the bottle are the four seasons - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, which are unleashed into the room. The animation would begin from here. The first season unleashed would be Spring starting to crawl up one wall, as it crawls to the next wall the season changes to summer and so on. Objects would be placed and recorded for certain seasons, like leaves for autumn to get a sense of realism. Some bits of the animation will be drawn directly onto the wall, whereas others will be projected.

At the end of the animation, the whole room would be covered by the seasons. I have not decided whether or not to have another video footage of the complete room and leaving the abandoned house.

Digital Tryout

This image was created by using the pen tool in Photoshop. To blend the drawing with the photograph I used a scattered brush edge to show that the wall-climber has been chalked onto the wall. This does work well, however I believe it won't be as successful as I want this project to be.

Graphic Tablet Tester

This is a quick few seconds clip tester of how the graphic tablet is used for the creating the animation. This works well, however I will play around more which the type of brush I used and focus on the strokes I make.

Tester for Materials from Hafiza Zaman on Vimeo.

This is just a tester and therefore isn't good. But from this I know that this option would also work well for the animation.

Story Outline of Animation

I have had some thought about what the outline of the animation is going to be about. The main theme of the animation is going to be Nature. The reason why I have said Nature is because of the Urban background. I want the photographs to work well with the animation.

The first idea I have had about letting nature take its course through spring, summer, autumn and winter. So basically the abandoned house has been taken over by the Seasons.

For this idea, I will start in a corner of a room in the abandoned house and start drawing stems and ivory forms of branches that grow across the wall. These would then blossom and add insects and birds and flowers to create a peaceful start to the animation. As time goes on, the leaves would start falling, and it gets windy and insects are all rushing around. Then eventually it starts to snow. Everything is covered with snow and everything dies out. From this I would create a loop so the spring time comes again.

That is just a base idea. If I chose the idea, it will get developed further so it is interesting and not a boring animation.

Material Experiments

Out of the options, I have tried the 1st one which is drawing onto the photograph that has been printed onto normal paper. I used dip pen and ink to draw onto the photograph, however it was not successful and kind of scratched the image itself.

The second option which was to use tracing paper worked well. I tried this by using a black biro pen.

This is how the actual image looks like. I still have the photograph behind the tracing paper.

This does work well, however the background image is faint. Therefore, I will experiment with this idea more as well as try the other options.

Photograph Animations

From the chosen location, I took a series of photographs that would be the Urban Background for the animation.

These are the first 12 photographs of animation which would probably the first few seconds of the animation.

I have a whole animation in photographs that shows the whole abandoned house. As I have the photographs, I have a slight problem. I wanted to print these photographs out and be able to draw onto them. However, when I went out to get these photographs printing, all the printing places only print on photographic paper gloss and matt finished and because of these finishes I am unable to draw onto them using dip pen and ink or biro. Therefore I have to consider how I would create the animation.

There is a list of options that I have to do this:

1) Print onto normal paper and try drawing over it in my choice of materials.

2) Print onto normal paper and using tracing paper, draw onto the tracing paper and scan each tracing paper and place it onto the photograph.

3) Using a graphic tablet, draw onto the photographs.

4) Draw onto the tracing paper and create each photograph.

My next step therefore would be to experiment with the over options and see which would be the most successful idea. At this point I will also be thinking about what the outline story of what the animation is going to be about.

Locations

My first step is to find a suitable abandoned place for the stop frame animation. Here are a few photographs that I took of a couple of locations found in Halifax.

These set of photographs are from an abandoned house:

This house is generally clean, with holes in the floors and walls, and perfect for the animation I have in mind.

These set of photographs are taken inside an abandoned factory:

The factory was full of pigeons and the place smelt bad too so I was only there for a few minutes and then I left. When thinking about this location and my piece of work, this location is too huge to work with or around therefore I have chosen to work with the abandoned house.

Introduction

For my final project, I first thought of creating a piece that would either tell a story or give out a message using fine artwork. However, after thinking about the final piece, I changed my mind. I have now decided to create a Stop Frame Animation on an Urban background. When thinking of this idea, I thought of BLU as this is something they do. However, for my piece, I will be taking photographs of the location and drawing on top of the photographs using my own drawing style.

To give you an Idea of what I have in mind. Here is a short film by Blu: an ambiguous animation painted on public walls. Made in Buenos Aires and in Baden (fantoche).

Great isn't it? :)

I aim to create a Stop Frame Animation using photographs and traditional drawings to achieve something like this.

This is a step to step plan of how I would create the Stop Frame Animation:

• Step 1 - Find a Location, a building or place that has been abandoned.
• Step 2 - Take photographs of the entire location. This would be used in the animation.
• Step 3 - Based on the photographs taken, design a storyboard of the animation. Designing the storyboard: What is the storyline? Is there a message within the piece?
• Step 4 - Create animation - frame by frame