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