Category: Motion Across Media

Whenever I finish a project, I’m always excited to get it out on every platform available to me. Until this moment, I have yet to create a structured rollout plan. As I prepared to release my Space Cadets short, I continued reading Liz Blazer’s Animated Storytelling, for more advice. It’s interesting, I learned the importance of prepping for my animations through storyboarding & sketching. But it was not a thought until the last chapter that planning must also occur, regarding how we introduce our content to the world. 

Step 1:Package Your Project
These tips set our films up for success when sharing them at  film festivals. Any questions viewers may have will have a higher chance of being answered as they experience our packaged project.

Package Your Project:Finishing a project may feel like we can let go and relax, but the work isn’t done yet. The next step is to prepare the film to have everything it needs to move forward for award consideration. This means professionally presenting the film with everything the submission board requested.

Make Sure Your Project Is Accessible: Depending on the platform used we can choose between a password protected link to share the video such as Vimeo. Or we can use a site like FilmFreeway to upload our film directly to submit to festivals. 

Create A Title Logo and Still: These two photos will train all who come in contact with our film to be able to quickly identify it. It also serves as photos that can be used for promotional materials on websites or posters.

Synopsis With A Hook: Think of a one to two sentence description of the project that draws the interest of those who hear it. It will be repeated on websites and publications as a first take on your film, so it is important not to rush creating the hook. 

The Tag: This is the text that intrigues audiences when they read it at the bottom of our movie poster. 

Director’s Bio: This is our professional introduction that includes our qualifications that were needed to create the movie. Having a headshot is great because it allows us to connect ourselves to our work. 

Story of the Film: This explains why we wanted to create our film and why there was a need to tell our film’s story. This helps prepare us for any interviews or viewer questions that may come after the film is viewed. 

Step 2: Determine Where to Show Your Film

It is important to read the room when submitting our films. Once a project is completed there is this want to throw it against every wall to see where it sticks. But the wise approach would be to determine what your film is and then release it to communities that would appreciate it. So for example if your video features all of the hot rods of America, it’s probably wise not to release it in a bicycle festival. 

We also receive the advice from Blazer to start out small when selecting festivals. It is important not to burn out at big film festivals when small ones have a better chance of getting in and winning awards at them have higher odds. She shares the understanding that if the film truly is great then it will rise to the top.

Step 3:Consider Skipping the Festival Route

We learned not to be married to our ideas of how our animations should look and sound during production. This concept applies to how we release our content as well. Sure, there might be a coveted film festival we may want to try for, but how many more people can be reached by releasing our film online?

Blazer also shares that festival submissions can create paralysis for some filmmakers because of how lengthy the process can be.After reading this chapter it reinforced releasing my work online should be my priority while entertaining festivals will serve as a secondary option.

Step 4: Create Your Network

Finding the people who connect with our art takes work and consistent content creation. Being surrounded by people who support us and the art we make has a huge impact on how our art is received. Social media platforms make it easier for us to connect with one another and enjoy what creators have to offer. It is as simple as reaching out to other creator’s and sharing support. Once this is done, people will come find our art and do the same. 

Building an online presence comes down to engagement with others and teasing some of our work out before offering a full release. Creating tension and excitement will have viewers engaged, which means they will be aware of our work when it is time to release it. 

Building our presence is not just limited to online, Blazer also encourages us to go to, in person networking events. Yes, being social in person may warrant a little incentive to get out of the house. But once at these events, meeting our people and heroes makes it worthwhile.

Step 5: Share and Repeat

Just as it is important to package our projects to set them up for success, it is important to create our correspondences the same way. Proofreading everything makes employers appreciate our submissions because they’re not trying to decipher hieroglyphics and they can make their determinations quicker. 

Blazer ends her book giving us the advice to never stop creating. Being an artist means that we constantly must push ourselves to try new things and to keep current skills sharp.

Research

Warning!!!!!Explicit Lyrics!!!!!

This music video sets an example of how we can have fun with 2D animation on live film. We can keep in as many real elements we want while introducing as many animated elements we desire. 

Space Jam brought 2D animation together with live action to give kids a movie that brought together their favorite athletes and cartoon characters. Animators decided to animate the world that Space Jam existed in while adding in real elements and actors as the storyline needed.

Good News showed vibrant backgrounds that detaches viewers from reality paired with added photos and videos of Mac Miller before his passing which anchors us throughout the visual experience.

Create

I’ve used my business logo as my social media icons and realized that unless viewers consumed my content for some time, they could not make the connection between myself and my purple astronaut. I planned to make a series of shorts where dressed as my logo I travel to different places in CT that hold art murals. Using the act of exploration as the premise of these shorts I also wanted to introduce fun animations that exist half in reality, half in animation. 

The first film location is located at the State Street and I-691 underpass in Meriden. The Rainbow Underpass, is a community lead effort to beautify and transform dark underpasses. 

The second film location is located at West Main St. Its vivid colors always pulled my attention as I whizzed by on my way to the highway. 

I had fun putting together my book story short film. It made sense to take my logo stinger and improve on it by making my spaceship’s light more translucent to mimic light. I added my planet twirling so that viewers had more time to read my business’ name. 

For the film I started in my living room and used the Roto Brush in After Effects to cut out my initial background. After animating my portals, I used them as transitions to each next scene. Adding animated items to my live footage involved utilizing position animations but they came to life with the different sound effects added in.

I want each short to be enough time to pull in viewers just enough to make them want to view the next posted short. After completing this project, I plan to make this a series where I travel throughout CT to share its art murals.

When companies are considering app development, they create mock apps using animation to give an idea of what the user interface would look like. 

This week, I decided I wanted to create a mock app for Space Cadets. I have been using linktr.ee to connect all my social media platforms and side ventures, but it is limited to the bio on each social media app. This app would serve as a one-stop shop for consumers to find everything. I would also have more control over how I can share information without being limited to an existing app’s rules.

Chapter Ten: Animate! Big-picture thinking, frame by frame

I took to Liz Blazer’s, Animated Storytelling, for tips regarding how to manage my animation project and what pitfalls to avoid. Her first words of advice was to create a production calendar for my animation project. I was not surprised by this as Blazer has emphasized the importance of organization and structure during the animation process throughout her entire book. 

Creating a production calendar was a familiar process as I use Asana to digitally plan out my social media projects. Blazer advised that we fill out our calendars working backwards from the due date which is something I’ve observed that animators also work backwards when creating animations. My mind however does not take to working backwards kindly, it takes a little more effort to keep track of myself moving backwards than forward. So for my calendar I set the due date on the top and then filled out my tasks moving forward to the due date. I knew that my starting point would be to read and research. My end point would be to review on the day before everything was due. Knowing the beginning and end of my project helped me fill in the middle of my calendar. 

The differences I noticed after completing my written production schedule:

>I felt more at ease with what needed to be done; the mystery of what would be animated dissipated a bit. 

 > I held a deeper connection to my project due to handwriting out my calendar and physically checking off tasks as I went along. It gave me a sense of ownership to my project that digitally, though Asana has animations when a task is completed, they do not give the same payoff.

Planning & Organization Tips

These tips pertain to how we should approach pre-production of animations:

Save our work: To save ourselves from the mental break downs that occur from losing all of our work because we failed to save, just save everytime progress has been made. I in fact learned this hard lesson back when I was animating my personal intro. I lost a quarter of my work because Adobe After Effects crashed (I kept clicking buttons at a rapid pace). Now I save after every completed animation task has been completed so if I mess up or don’t like something, I have a checkpoint to return to.  

Start with easy tasks: Self-management ensures the success of our projects. It is best not to start a project with the tasks that hold the highest demands. Completing the easiest sequences first means that we won’t be burnt out by the time we arrive at the harder sequences. 

Allocate the hard tasks: Just because we leave the harder sequences for last does not mean we dive into them head first. Breaking up the harder tasks helps us pace ourselves in order to avoid fizzling out during animating tough sequences. 

Don’t be afraid to let go: In life we learn that the quicker we let go, the better things will go for us. Letting go creates space for the things that need to be present to flourish. Holding on to everything creates clutter and confusion. Well animation is no different, being reluctant to edit out a sequence because it’s our favorite will be what holds our animations back. 

This also applies to sound, just because you planned out a certain soundtrack doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t revise it during the production stage if it’s warranted. 

Edit storyboards: Do not be afraid to cross out anything on your storyboard. They are meant to be an elaborate display of what your animation will hold. Do not limit it because something was already drawn.

Plan out poses: Sketching out the basic choreography of your character’s positions and movements will help bring your animation together. This is another part of taking out the guesswork of your animations. By being reflective up front and answering as many possible questions, when it is time to animate there will be a strong sense of understanding. 

Anticipate and Follow Through: Realistic animations respect these two rules of motion. You can think of anticipate as the motion before an object or character goes into the main motion. Blazer gave the example that when a woman is ruinning for a bus, she does just start pumping her arms and legs. You will see her body lean back to gather the momentum for the run, this is anticipation. Follow through is the motion after the main motion is completed. Going back to our woman running for the bus, when she stops, her hair and dress will swing forward as a result of the gathered force of her running.  

Planning out poses will help being able to add the appropriate anticipate and follow through to our animations. Another great tool is researching the motion in works created whether through animation or acting. 

Thoughtful composition of directional movement: We can either create peace or chaos through our choices of how objects move in our sequences. Movement that is directionally consistent will feel calmer vs. movement that contrasts the predominant directions feel chaotic. Knowing our animations through storyboarding and reflections help us make the decision on how to compose the direction of our objects. 

Production Tips

It’s best to keep these tips in mind during the production process:

Get out of center: We’ve learned to not have our characters or objects dead center as it takes away viewer interest. It is important to take the time to check that there aren’t too many things that are center-focused, shot after shot. 

Mix up the shot length: Mixing up the scale of the subjects inside the frame and the amount of information included in the frame enhances the viewer’s experience. Viewer’s like to see a diversity of sizing in shots which will hold their attention. 

Mix up the shot timing: It is important to be intentional about how long a shot is held and use a mix of timings for the best effect. Just as viewers like diversity of sizing, they like to experience diversity of timing.

Play with the visuals: Because we are animating in software, natural consequences of movement must be added in to exist. Exposure can be used to add realistic depth whether adding blur, grain, grunge or vignette. Super clean shots are not realistic, viewers want to see contrast in their visuals as well. 

Mute your sound: Letting our animation play without sound shows us whether our animation is strong enough to convey what we want without using audio as a crutch. Utilizing this trick can show what more is needed for our animation and can show us what sounds need to be removed.

Research

Since the beginning of the internet we have had load progress bars. Amazon made theirs slimmer and connected to the search box so that users can see the app is working on finding their search results.

This fun animation whenever a customer adds an item to their cart mimics how our carts fill up when we physically go to the store. The falling item brings the user to their cart with a progress bar to show how much more is needed for free delivery gives users important information without overwhelming them.

The beginning of this video(0-38secs) shows how sounds can be incorporated to bring animations to life for viewers. Apple added in sound effects for their mouse clicks and keyboard typing to create the illusion that the viewer is watching someone in real time.

Between seconds 45-49 we see the UI animations for Apple Pay, Face & Touch ID. The transitions are smooth and flow into one another.

Duolingo rewards users for completing their language lessons by including a short animation of their mascot Duo or other characters cheering users on. They also share lesson information such as experience points, accuracy and speed through short animations that are supported by cheerful sound effects.

While a user waits for their game to load up, Farmville took advantage of this wait time by adding in a load screen. They change it according to current seasons(spring,summer,fall,winter), current in-app events, app anniversaries etc. 

This is a great way to continue to build user experiences outside of their game.

Space Cadets App

Overall, I had fun creating my mock app for Space Cadets.

Creating my production calendar was a great addition to my pre-production planning because it kept me on track with what visuals needed to be made. At first the thought of creating a mock up to showcase my UI designs had me at a loss, I could not begin to think of what that would consist of. 

Once I completed my pre-production tasks the ideas for my animations fell into place. Having a search bar that would bring users to content pertaining to what they searched felt like a perfect way to help them navigate the app. Another navigation tool that I created were the light blue indicator dots to show users where they are currently located in the app. The search result progress bar felt like a great addition for users to know that the app is working to provide them with what they need. 

It was interesting orchestrating the balance between animation and sound. For the finger swipe across I included a whoosh sound effect to compliment the transition into my tok. It felt like overkill putting in the sound effect for the upwards finger swipe. My animation seemed to benefit more from having consistent push sounds because the app would have those sounds, versus the scrolling sounds which we do not hear when using apps. 

Companies have used animated logos to connect viewers to their brands. There’s something about seeing an appealing animation that will make viewers turn into consumers.

This week, I will be taking on the project of creating a logo stinger for Space Cadets. I want to build my brand’s presence and viewer awareness by using my stinger for ads and for some video intros. 

In order to prepare for this week’s project, I read some more of Liz Blazers, Animated Storytelling. Blazer asked us a question that I believe should be asked for every project moving forward. It was whether I chose the best technique to bring my animation to life. It is human nature to want to stay where we are comfortable. After doing all the work to learn one style of animation, why would we catapult ourselves to learn a different one?

It is important not to become stagnant once mastering an animation technique. We must understand that the best creators are the ones who adapt and push themselves past their level of comfort, all in the name of creating.

Adaptability also means thinking about who our intended audience is, in order to set them up for viewing success. It means not being married to one idea of how a project should be executed, if it calls for a different technique. 

Animation Techniques

In previous chapters, we leaned into a deeper understanding of color and sound. In this chapter, Blazer expanded our knowledge of animation techniques to consider when making our projects:

Hand Drawn: These animations are drawn using tools such as pencils, crayons, paint, ink and charcoal. 

Stop Motion: Photos are taken from a camera in a stationary position. Each photo is shot frame by frame and objects are moved incrementally between frames. Once all photos are taken, they are put together to create an animation. There are two ways to execute stop motion—2D & 3D. 

2D: Photos are taken frame by frame with a camera held over a flat surface. Light boxes are often used for sand, oil, paint or paper silhouettes. This technique gives a flat, handmade quality to films that express emotions well and have high adaptability. 

3D: Photos are taken frame by frame with a camera on a tripod to shoot things on a created set. Objects used for animation would be clay, puppets, models, found materials and pixelation of puppets. 

2D CGI: This animation is created in a flat or two dimensional software environment. The range of the environments can be either flat & super clean to modeled & highly textured. It is sought out for print because it translates well to that medium. 

3D CGI: Is made in a three dimensional software environment. Elements are modeled, rigged, textured, puppeted and animated in a virtual space. This technique allows you to create characters and environments that are not limited, even to the laws of gravity.

Adapt For Success

The main take away I got from this week’s reading is to not be married to one thought, technique or idea. It is better to adapt and utilize work arounds than to burn out because a project did not go in the direction I expected. 

The beautiful thing about creating is that any issues with execution can be solved through utilizing creative tools. Blazer gave us 3 work arounds to hold in our back pockets for future use:

• Import still images: using a still image in editing software allows us to create the illusions of animation through tools such as masking. 
• Shoot live action footage: stock photos can only do so much, sometimes it’s better to source our footage or photos ourselves to use for our projects. There’s materials to use all around us, we just have to have the vision to utilize them. 
• Staff Up: it is known that car dealerships outsource their body work to nearby body shops. Well, this concept is the same for creators, if there is a needed technique that can’t be done by the creator, why not collaborate with a creator that can? 

It’s important to remember not to limit ourselves when creating for the best possible creations to be made. 

Research

Marvel utilized staging by having their many movie scenes playing up close at first to slowly pan out. We are immersed in all of the characters that we’ve come to know and love. By the end of this animation they reveal that all of the footage is playing in the letters that spell Marvel Studios.

Treyarch during the Black Ops III campaign played with the concept of digital data being hacked and altered. Using staging we are greeted with bright visuals that once panned out reveal to be a part of Treyarch’s logo.

This logo stinger, being glitchy while incorporating their signature orange color, pulls viewers in for Activision to also showcase what is inside their logo design.

Cartoon Network played with 2D and 3D boxes to build up to reveal their company logo. I like how they played with 2 different animation styles, which represent their network provides 2D and 3D cartoons to view.

PlayStation started their video zoomed in, showing all of the button letters located on their controller. They added in their signature voice saying PlayStation as well. This stinger brings viewers into the world of Playstation as an invitation to play.

Play 30secs-37secs 

Dribble used squash and stretch for their basketball that they used in their stinger. Adding the circles to show the impact of the ball was elevated by the basketball sound effects they added in as well.

Space Cadets Logo Stinger

I found a lot of my visual elements through Canva. I saved them with transparent backgrounds so that I could build them in Adobe Illustrate. Having all of my layers saved separately to import into Adobe After Effects allowed me to work with the elements independently.

Using After Effects, I animated Saturn to spin in and grow larger, and then I transitioned the animation of the moving clouds to build the atmosphere. Adding in sound effects for Saturn landing onto the stage, the clouds passing by as well as the spaceship entering the stage and leaving, brought my animation to life. Playing with the opacity to indicate the spaceship moving quickly and to fade out the video were nice touches.

With this stinger I wanted to capture the essence of my small business, which is to be an adventurer in the DIY world. It is alien in a way to our current society to see the value in making things for ourselves. Our ancestors did this to survive, but we feel far removed from the need to do so. What Space Cadets encourages is exploration, fun and discovery.

How do you think I did?

Last week, I created the test video for my DragonBall stopmotion storyboard. After receiving feedback from my colleagues, I decided to scrap that project in order to pursue my Rose Body Oil stop motion video. Since there would be no dialogue, I continued reading Liz Blazer’s, Animated Storytelling. I wanted to learn more on how I could use sound to support my animations and keep my viewers interested.

Chapter Seven: Sound Ideas

Blazer lets us know that sound can be used to bring an animation to life by reinforcing what viewers know from their life experiences. They know that dogs bark and that car alarms go off when a rock goes through the window. So when we create our animations, not including these sounds is a disservice, unless the lack of use of sound is to build tension or to alert that something is wrong. 

It is important that we understand sound deeper just as we previously broadened our understanding of color. There are two different types of sound that can be used for our animations:

Diegetic sound: This comes from sources that are visible on the screen from the physical world. An example would be there is a dog on the screen and it is barking. 

Non-diegetic sound: This comes from sources that are neither visible on the screen but are implied by an action. You would recognize this as the “wah-wah-wah” of a trombone when a character has learned they have been swindled. 

We also learn that restraint is key when it comes to sound. Just because we can add in whatever sound we can think of, it does not mean that is the best thing to do for our animation. In previous chapters, we learned this for writing; it makes sense for visuals and audios that simplicity is the best approach. Sound should be used to support a story not to overcomplicate one.

Another way to support a scene with sound is through atmospheric music. This music is a subtle soundtrack that gives a scene a little more personality. The use of atmospheric music can give the audience a little break to enjoy the animation for what it is before being steered to the next plot device. 

Because our animations will create endless opportunities to introduce sound into scenes, it is important to know our characters and the dialogues that will occur. 

Chapter Eight: Design Wonderland

Whether a story takes place in the present, past or future will help an animator portray the obstacles that must be overcome. Being introduced to a character that just obtained a head cold in 2026, there’s no drama. We know that the character can find an immediate solution to feel better with a click of a button. But if the story was placed in the 1800s, there’s more weight to the character being sick because we know how limited medicine was then.

At first, creating storyboards seemed like it was just to ensure project success, but it serves another purpose. It is for creators to get so immersed in the world that they are creating that they can set all of the rules for viewers. Viewers look to animators to set the expectations of the world they are creating and to stick to them. Whether the expectations are conventional, where a dog barks or they’re unconventional, where a dog speaks English. 

For this reason, it is crucial for us to stay inspired. It is important to view a lot of work that has already been done, so that for our work we can explore ideas further or go in different directions.

Research Time

This stop-motion used the song Falling Together by The Cage to set the tone of this story. We are introduced to a deep story without a word or any extra sound effects being added to the animation.

The soundtrack supported the story of the gorilla without overwhelming it and set the pacing of the animation. Through the book ending technique we learn the significance of the gorilla staring out at the rain, we learn of friendship, loss and sadness. This was all done with a simplistic soundtrack and the creator’s intentional choices of having a wind up character, rain vs. sunshine and the scene closing in with greyness.

This stop motion used sound effects and a soundtrack to support the story. The creator added diegetic sounds such as the paper being taken out, the foil noises, and the scissors cutting. This brought the animation to life and supported the actions being viewed on screen. At 2:37, the harp (non-diegetic sound) was used to show that the foil character was having a thought or daydream, which was the next scene. It wasn’t until the chase around 3:48 that a soundtrack was added to support the drama of one of the foil characters chasing the other. The balance between sound effects and a soundtrack was beautifully achieved within this work.

Blue Staircase used the moving cut out character to reveal or erase the name of the film as well as the names of the actors. The soundtrack sets the tone of a mystery that will occur while sound effects were kept to a minimum of the sound of paper tearing due to a knife cutting through it. What an amazing way to get viewers to make an association with the name of the film to the film’s content.

This video shows the importance of setting the stage for our stop motion for viewers to be able to receive. With there being flour, sprinkles, and other baking items on the table, we understand that this is a creative food project. The context was set for the moving cookies to spell out the title name, as well as for the flour writing to appear. The soundtrack was fun and encouraged the animations as they played out.

Rose Magic Stop Motion

Overall I enjoyed the process of creating my rose stop motion. I would like for future projects to polish being able to control lighting and photo sequences a bit better. I left out some photos that at the time of filming made sense but when I put them in Adobe After Effects to animate they no longer supported the storyline. 

For my project I went with the beaded necklace story structure. I chose a soundtrack in the beginning that would support the suspense of the opening animation being in outer space. I used the suspense of the soundtrack building to animate some of the pulsing stars to glitch.

Once I added in this foreshadowing, I had fun making a paper rose appear to turn into the rose petals I used to spell out my business’ name. Keeping Blazer’s advice to heart about being wise as to where to add my sound effects, I limited them to diegetic sounds to anchor viewers while visually defying laws of reality. The real stars were the trumpet and bass from the soundtrack that kept engagement during different scenes. 

The outro of my project was inspired by Adult Swim Bumps. I animated a rose and changed it according to the colors of the text I had typed out. I also added my business logo with my name signed before fading the visuals out. The soundtrack for the outro was the same as the intro; I just had it a little further out so it could feel like a continuation from the start of the video. 

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.

View this post on Instagram

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!

This week, I created a self-introduction video through Adobe After Effects. Before I took off on my creative venture, I read a few chapters of Animated Storytelling, here is what I learned from Blazer:

Chapter One: Storytelling

This chapter supported the understanding that our creative works are most successful when they are structured. We learn that beats are used to move our stories forward by creating the order of events that occur. The order of these events build our stories’ emotional impact on our viewers. The story telling structure has three basic steps:

1. A character has a problem
2. The character works towards a solution
3. The character solves the problem in a surprising way

It is important to note that the art of storytelling is done well when it’s not complicated by a ton of details. Adding in elements like music, colors and background images hold our viewer’s attention enough for them to receive pieces of information as they continue to watch. This is how we are able to build the emotional impact of the climax of the story.

Nonlinear Structures

After Blazer built our understanding of a story’s structure, she then introduced us to nonlinear structures. It may seem as though stories must be told in a linear manner, but there are 5 nonlinear story structures we can choose from when creating our stories:

1.Book Ending: The story must start and end at the same point, however, the storyteller is in control of the events that exist in between those points. This structure rewards the viewers for their investment of seeing the production through to the end. Learning key details in the middle of the story brings appreciation for the beginning and the end. 

2.The Beaded Necklace: An animation’s soundtrack is what holds this story structure together. The objects, characters and details are supporting factors to what the music is conveying. For example, if a soundtrack is dark and gloomy, then the animation would follow suit by being in greys and dark colors. The storyteller may have a character that is down on their luck and have it constantly raining. What interests me about this structure is that the story has already been written by the musical notes, the storyteller is just complimenting this story visually. 

3.The Countdown: This method is as simple as immediately showing the audience an inevitable situation and building tension up to the inevitable ending. What is key with this method is keeping a consistent pace towards the end of the story so that the audience knows what to expect; they are just invested in seeing the story through. 

4.The Puzzle: Who doesn’t love a good ole visual puzzle to solve. I’ve always loved viewing psychological thrillers because of this story structure. They usually start off with:

-A very interesting character

– The feeling of something being off but not being able to identify what exactly is off

-A ball of chaos to sort through

As the audience continues to watch, they receive more puzzle pieces that eventually connect to the climax of the story. The ending leaves you mind blown and you might want to rewatch the video to see the clues you missed.

This method is fun because, unlike the book ending method, the viewer does not know where the journey of the story will take them. The reward is letting the mystery unravel. 

5.High Concept: Using this method leans into the understanding that storytelling does not need to be complicated. It can be so simplistic that the audience quickly understands what to expect so that they can have great characters, plot twists and visuals thrown at them without their understanding being shaken. 

Chapter Two: Unlocking Your Story

Blazer starts this chapter with four different brainstorming exercises for a storyteller to truly familiarize themselves with their story’s narrative. 

Narrative Exercises

The first exercise explains that the conflict of a story must be clear and revealed early. Knowing that there is an unresolved conflict, primes the viewer to expect a series of actions to take place. A storyteller is using an audience’s human nature to want to experience the drama of a conflict more than seeing a perfect story. Being a cat owner I understood the drama behind a cat sitting on another cat’s mat vs. being told a cat sat on a mat. The later example invokes disinterest, while the first example provokes some interest on what drama will happen next. 

Moving on to the second exercise we took a look further into overwhelming audiences with too much information too soon. People can take in only so much information at once. Instead of dropping a bunch of details on someone, we can be strategic about how we release the details along the length of the story to support the climatic build up to end. 

For the third exercise Blazer shared an experiment she held one day with following a stranger in order to write a back story of a character. I do want to ask her if she really did this however I get her point. When creating a character, it’s important to spend a lot of time with who the character really is. The quickest way to get to the bottom of this is to ask what is your character’s secret? This will then encourage the other questions that can be asked that build’s what makes your character interesting and worthy of holding an audience’s attention.

Exercise four introduced Kurt Vonnegut’s master thesis on, “The Shapes of Stories”. Vonnegut drew out story timelines as line or bar graphs. The horizontal axis measured the progression from beginning to end while the vertical axis measured the progression from Fortune-to-Great Fortune. Being that we learned that our storylines must have a measured progression from start -climax- end, this makes sense that we can illustrate this through graphs. 

Experimental Form

There will be times where the story we want to tell will not come to us conventionally. Blazer introduced us to six experimental forms that we may want to use:

Visual Music: This form reminded me of the beaded necklace mentioned above because the soundtrack is the story that the animation is trying to visually convey through moving images, shapes and colors. The visuals are the supporting items to the soundtrack’s story.

Pure Poetry: Instead of music, for this form a written work would be used as the inspiration of the story. It does not have to be a strict interpretation of the written work, the storyteller can add to the story with whatever visuals or audio they would like. 

Repetition/Evolution: Watching a sequence of images cycle and evolve as it goes is satisfying to watch. This form serves as a form of enchantment that the audience can not deny watching. I thought of how many kaleidoscope videos I’ve watched. The combination of the visual effects evolving while the colors, elements and shapes changed holds attention well.

Continuity/Diversity: This form resembles the high-concept story structure. It establishes a single predictable element that never changes or develops, unlike everything else around it. 

Anthology: We’ve learned that brainstorming our story and exhausting all questions is the best way to know what we want to animate. Reka Bucsi revealed that she was able to create her animated short Symphony No.42 by writing little things down all the time and then she sat down with the collection of ideas and emotions to compile the story. This method is a great choice if a brainstorm brought about a bunch of ideas that would overwhelm one story.

Cut It Out & Play: This method can be known as hands on play. You take your cut outs and move them around as you feel is needed. The story shapes your choices. I would say when I started exploring stop motion I bumped into this method. My best creations have always been while experimenting and exploring, it’s just important to have a camera to record the magic that ensues. 

Chapter Three: Storyboarding

In the previous chapters we learned how to sharpen our written script of the story we want to animate. This chapter teaches us how to build our visual script for our animations. Thumbnails are the rough drafts of what we want to bring to life visually. We can explore through our sketches if our story holds up once animated. 

For our current assignment I created my own storyboard to be my guide during animating my intro video. I took a piece of printer paper and folded it so that it has 6 distinct squares for my intro’s storyline. After learning about the importance of shot composition and framing, I knew that I wanted to play with close ups and positioning objects off of center to keep my audience engaged. 

I made the connection that staging is the visual equivalent of not writing in too many details. Successful storytelling means that the visuals also are concise and deliver the needed pieces of information.

As I began to sketch out my storyboard’s visuals, the transitions and continuities fell into place. For my first section, I will have myself waving, then I will turn to jump into the animation of the next page, this gave me the direction that I must move in on the first frame as well as the movement of the objects on the second frame. As I continued to sketch I recorded which directions I wanted my transitions to move in through drawn arrows. 

Timing and Animatics will come together once I’ve added my audio recording and background music. These layers will prompt where I will need to trim out visuals that are not needed. 

Research Time

Hot Thing – Talib Kweli

This music video was everything to me when it came out back in 2006. Having Talib Kweli moving in the background with all of the edited effects in the front was genius. Videos of models fly by supporting the song’s lyrics, words would pop up out of Kweli’s hands or drawn animated images appeared. It shows the unlimited nature of animation; all we need as creators is an idea and a structured approach.

Adult Swim Bumps

Falling asleep to Adult Swim always meant waking up to a bump playing. Whether they had a black screen with information flying by in bullet points, a random photo with music that pulls you in or a scene from an anime show they aired. The editors at Adult Swim knew how to use music to either be the story or a supporting layer of the story.

Day ‘N’ Nite – Kid Cudi

I’m curious if this video was edited in Adobe Animate. All of the drawn animation and transitions support the lyrics of the song. Playing on Kid Cudi taking a psychedelic trip, being the premise of the song, the editors used animation to warp reality.

Self Introduction Video

This was my first project created on Adobe After Effects. I’ve used Canva and Capcut for all of my video editing to date. After Effects gives users more control over every possible variable of their video.

At the beginning of my video, I learned to use the Roto Brush tool to erase the background. I wanted to create the visual effect of me running into the map of New York as the first transition. This tool allowed me to remove all background objects from my shot.

It was fun mixing in the different entrance animations for my photos to come into view, whether making them pop or twirl in. For my red train, undergraduate timeline, and resume objects, I utilized animate. After creating my starting and ending points, I changed the timing for certain objects and added sound effects.

Creating the phone screen and dropping in content that I’ve created was a fun idea. That is what I like about After Effects, anything can come to life once there’s a vision. This idea took over my idea for having my astronaut logo pop out onto the screen. I thought it would be more personal to show my content; there will always be time to make another video using my logo.

The images I chose are all connected to my life experiences, whether it be the trains I used to take, business logos for companies I worked for, or Quinnipiac organizations. My goal is to pull viewers into my world and to keep them engaged throughout my video.

My creative projects have always started with being inspired, and then I let the pieces fall into place. Once I have an idea, I immediately jump to execute it because creative ideas are so fleeting. After reading the first chapter of Liz Blazer’s, Animated Storytelling, I will approach my creative projects differently.

Ensuring the success of projects comes down to planning out every aspect of the project first. Without direction and proper allocation of resources, a creative is leaving their success to chance, which does not produce consistent results.

Experimenting With My New Creative Approach

I’m currently working on gaining more exposure for my small business, Space Cadets. I wanted to create GIFs that will connect my business to my personal brand.

When answering what the content of my campaign will be, I’ve decided to make a sprint of GIFs to increase brand awareness. The audience would be my followers on Instagram and TikTok. It would serve as a means of advertising without having to pay for in-app services.

Drafting my big idea consisted of writing out everything I could think of for my GIFs. The GIFs will incorporate bright neon colors that contrast against animated space graphics. My goal is to break potential customer’s doom scrolling and direct attention to my social media pages. 

My business slogan is,” Welcome aboard to your self-care journey”. To play on this, every GIF must connect my audience to the concept of joining a voyage and becoming a fellow Space Cadet. I want viewers to be brought into a new universe that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also positively affects their day-to-day.

Inspiration Research

Blazer stated that, in order to make something fresh we must study what has been done before. Before I began creating my GIFs I took to Freepik for some inspiration.

Here are some GIFs that stood out to me:

My business logo is an astronaut; I want to use it with a moving galaxy background for one of my GIFs.

I appreciated the clouds and stars mixed together in this GIF, I will have some flat backgrounds, but I do want one with cloud movement.

There’s something about bright neon colors against space backgrounds that fits so perfectly. I love vapor wave work, and it will be a heavy influence on my creations.

The glimmering stars tie in the neon clouds and the still image of the astronaut well.

This one shows how simple a GIF can be, they don’t always have to be loud and chaotic.

My Gifs

For this GIF I made a photo of Space Cadets in each color through Canva. In Photoshop, I took each photo of my business’s name and timed it so that the GIF cycles through all of the neon colors quickly. I wanted to play with a still background being complimented by bright flashing neon lights.

I found the background video on Freepik. In Photoshop, I changed the color saturation and hues to alter the colors of the video segments. My business logo is the still image of this GIF. I wanted to see the difference between the background being a still image vs. the photo being still. I like both approaches.

In Adobe Animate I drew each version of Saturn and copied it for 4 frames. Being that I am creating GIFs I decided I didn’t need longer, if I was making a Youtube short or an IG reel I would have used 10 frames instead. I do like how the cloud and star movements pair with Saturn’s ring changing colors and its position.

Conclusion

Creating a creative plan for my GIF project did not take away the fun of creation. I found myself inspired when completing my creative brief. I was able to answer any question I had before clicking away in my editing software. Being that I am new to Photoshop and Animate, when I would get stuck in executing my creative work, it was great to have a map to refer to so that I continued in the right direction.