After creating my first storyboard for my self introduction video, I vowed to adopt storyboards into my pre-production process. Having a guide to refer to, while bringing my project to life set the expectations of what was needed to successfully complete my project. This week I will be creating two storyboards for the stop motion video I will be creating. To begin prepping for this venture I turned to Liz Blazer’s, Animated Storytelling, for some more guidance.
Chapter Five: Color Sense
In this chapter Blazer clears up our understanding of what the terms hue, saturation and value means. I’ve seen these words so many times and never took the time to understand their meaning, I would just slide my markers in different directions until I got the color I wanted. Now that I have a deeper understanding of what these three words mean, I can approach my color selection with less whimsical mystery.
Hue: Hue refers to the common color name in the spectrum we refer to like red, blue, green etc.
Saturation: How deep or rich do you want the color to be? Saturation refers to the intensity or pureness of your selected color.
Value: How light or dark is the color you’ve chosen? The answer lies in the value of the color you choose. High value means the color is closer to white, while low value means the color is closer to black.
Tone: This is where you decide the overall brightness or darkness of a specific color by adding grey to the hue.
I created the example below to show, using tone I can make a cute rubber duck and a rain cloud, ominous and edgy just by having a heaver tone.
Color Scripts
It makes sense if we take the time to create a storyboard to then proceed to create our color script. Color scripts are visual outlines of how a creator decides they want to use color in their animated film. This sets the expectation of what colors are needed to convey our story and we further know which colors to let go of that will overcomplicate our animations.
Blazer gives us the tips to ask what color would we use to convey our story as well as what color would support key moments in our story. We can rely on rules of color expression that has already been agreed on, such as red means angry. Or we can change the value of a rainy scene to bring in the gloom and heaviness of the moment the main character is having.
It is important to remember when choosing colors, it’s not to complicate our animations, the colors we choose are to support the story. This is why when selecting background colors it’s best to find nondistracting colors and give our main characters the bold colors that attract attention. There is also the technique of leaving a white space around the main character to not overwhelm viewers’ eyes.
Lastly, when creating color scripts it makes it a bit easier to decide what colors could be utilized to give our animation a pop of color. When placed during key moments, the pop of color can add emphasis to the moment that the main character is having.
Chapter Six: Weird Science
During the beginning of my creative journey the most popular piece of advice given was to surrender to the process.
What is that exactly?
To surrender is to let go, it’s to not worry about the outcome as well as not to worry about what people will think. Don’t worry about the numbers, how many people liked your content or viewed it. Just create!
Blazer supports this advice by explaining that when creators no longer care about how people will welcome their art, the creator is freed to explore the possibilities.
Samuel Beckett coined the phrase “fail better” which means to push the limits of our skill sets for growth. This phrase resembles Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow states. The way that creators will find the most fufillment is not just by completing projects for work but through the creative ones that follow no structured approach.
Since I’ve started Motion Across Media, I’ve landed in a space that I have not been in for some time. Tinkering in Adobe Animate reminded me of the countless hours I spent playing in Microsoft Paint as a kid. I had no rhyme or reason, I did anything I wanted, whether I added crazy textures, shapes, or colors.
Reading this chapter reminded me above all to have fun and be curious just as I was back in the 90s.
Research Time
!!!WARNING!!!
If you don’t care for strong language and obscene stupidity, don’t watch!
Robot Chicken was one of my favorite Adult Swim shows because of how they used stop motion to create scenes with figures. Using the little cut out mouths to change a figure’s expression or a little clay to the eyelids to have the eyes closed were such great techniques. I love how they use synthetic fibers to mimic smoke or use of putty to make other inanimate objects. The creators knew how to bring their animations to life for us to enjoy their chaotic bits.
I have a few SH Figuarts figures in my collection that I’ve been wanting to animate with. The possibilities are endless when it comes to the scenes that can be created. I want to use the props that come with my figures to animate them like this video did. Also, I like that fight animations can serve as transitions.
Lego did a great job of pairing their animation with their music for this stop-motion project. This video shows how sound effects can bring prop objects to life without having to animate them.
This is an example of how a company can showcase their product by playing with stop motion. It was creative of Kelloggs to use their cornflakes to create a running character that lands back into their cereal box. I liked being able to identify the use of a book ending structure for this animation as the character started and ended in its cereal box.
I have yet to decide, but if I proceed with my Space Cadets stop motion, I want to showcase all of the raw ingredients I use for my products with the end result being the finished product.
Another example of how I can advertise my finished products for Space Cadets. This video is very simple, it’s light and fun. It will attract viewers towards this company and peak their curiosity to possibly purchase products. The soundtrack also supports this animation by adding a pop to the visuals.
https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000009223668/visible-mending.html
I couldn’t imagine how much time it took to create this stop motion, but it’s amazing seeing the knitted works being made and then manipulated to move around. As the narrator discusses mental health, the knitted works are being used to support what the narrators are explaining to the audience. This video shows how our animations will support the story and capture viewer attention.
Pre- Production Summaries
I chose this story because the whole premise of the character Goku is that he will always show up to save his loved ones and the Earth from evil villains. People who are familiar with DragonBall GT will lock in because this is a recreation of a fight between Goku and Super Android 17.
I expect to be challenged by posing the figures because it will be a balance between not moving the figure too far from the point of the last frame while switching out face plates or hands. I’m leaning towards this animation because of how fun of a project it will be to create and how it will connect with already established DragonBall fans.
I’ve been working on projects to bring awareness to my small business Space Cadets. So far I’ve made two stop motions to thank followers for showing their support. This would be a different approach by showcasing the quality ingredients I use for my projects through stop motion. I think the biggest challenge would be moving the raw ingredients around to create fun dancing patterns or shapes. Rose petals are delicate and so are the raw butters and oils I use, but I think it would come together well in the end.
I am leaning towards the DragonBall GT stop motion for this class project, but I will still make this project for my business afterwards. Seeing how so many brands have used stop motion as a fun way to showcase their products I don’t think I can pass up Space Cadets doing the same.
Test DragonBall GT Animation
I had so much fun making this test video. Yes, it was a challenge to manage changing out face plates, hands and posing the figures while keeping them in the same area of the last frame. I used an object as a place holder to keep track of where my character’s feet need to return to which helped.
I was playing around with having the stage a bit dim in the beginning to show the contrast of the character being powered down vs. powered up. It was a bit of a challenge controlling light with natural sunlight coming in at the time of recording.
Adding my drawn animations through Adobe Animate gave the animation a little bit more life. I went into Adobe After effects to add the music soundtrack as the music was giving me a hard time in Animate to add in.
I hope you enjoyed my tester video!