Directing and storyboarding an animation

How does a film director relate to the animator?

In stop motion animation the director and the animator are often the same person in which case it's vital to differentiate between the two roles. 

Director of the animation:

• A clear vision
• oversees the creative process
• casts the characters
• chooses the location of the set
• decides on lighting, camera position
• Directs the characters
• Sets a mood for each scene
• Chooses a shot list

Animator

• creates characters for close-up, mid-shot and long shot, side profile, head-on
• transforms the characters eg in an explosion
• designs animated backgrounds
• creates props 
• develops transitions between shots
• creates contrast between character and background
• offers ways for characters and background to interact

Between them, the director and animator agree on a storyboard. Story telling involves introducing characters which the audience can relate to, setting a challenge for the main character which leads to conflict which reaches some kind of resolution by the end of the film. 

In animation, characters are few and all are generally introduced in the opening frames. This offers the viewer forewarning so they can anticipate what may unfold and part of the fun of watching film is to be surprised at an unexpected turn of events.

Viewers expect a film to refer back to films seen in the past: borrowing, parody, adaptation, and modernisation are central film-making and lead to recognised genres with styles and typical storylines such as gothic, realist and anime.

Once the storyboard is agreed, 

An animatic is helpful in translating the storyboard into an animation. An animatic is a series of clips or stills using the characters which is played out in real time to test for timing and clarity. 

The animatic may be shown to a naive audience in order to judge its effect. Once the animatic is adapted, the shot list is next. This is a list of all the planned shots in the film, which helps in deciding in what order to shoot the scenes. Usually this is completely different to the final sequence as the opening and closing scenes oftren closely resemble each other, with crucial differences. This saves time in building sets and animating the characters. In craft animation there have to be reserve copies of the characters as the process of filming can damage armatures or models. The shot list may indicate essential shots and optional extra shots.  But in practice, some shots work better than others.

Filming throws up all kinds of practical problems. Lack of time, change in lighting, weather and incidental factors may all prevent the non-essential shots being taken. 

So what happens next? 

Directing involves ditching shots which fail to come across and developing new shots which explain the story better. It may be necessary to make new models of central characters and to change the set to reach internal consistency. When the clips are joined together, some scenes may stand out as inconsistent and need to be thoroughly reworked.

Throughout filming, the director is asking: 

How does this shot develop the story? 

In animation this especially involves transformation and transitions which are impossible in live filming. After each day's filming, the question is: what worked best today and how can filming tomorrow take in these lessons?

1984 the stage play: Angst und Zeitgeist

1984 presents a vivid, scary, dystopian view of the present. 

The Party sees, hears and knows everything people do through a system of screens, cameras and paid informers. People willingly submit to this invasion of privacy because of Project Fear: 

the country is at war

 terrorism threatens 

the collapse of civilisation is imminent

  'There is no alternative'  

Michael Billington's review 
The illusion is maintained through constant repetition and sinks into the world view of everyone. Though I found the play melodramatic and the scenes of torture unbearable, it did make me think about the narrative that national governments like to foster.

There is the narrative of Great Britain: the 'golden years' of a benevolent empire founded on profits from slavery and naval aggression. A transient lead in technology has endowed Brits with the illusion of supremacy, hints of which were heard in the run-up to the Brexit vote. 

It's convenient to forget that Britain is sinking into a morass of corruption and inequality; taking its place as a small nation on the edge of Europe.
In a way, our present state resembles the book group who debate Winston Smith's diary: the myths and illusions of our present day Zeitgeist are invisible to us because we all want to believe a cosy narrative.

The British Empire gave a lift-up to nations that hadn't experienced bureaucracy or prejudice on the grounds of sexual orientation. Missionaries civilised primitive peoples and their illegitimate children, rebellions, torture and starvation are not a part of this story.

How do you cope when someone lets you down: a natural mindful approach

How do you cope when someone lets you down?

This happened to me today so I'm trying to think of mindful things I can do.

1. "There will be better days":

I like this long-suffering phrase, it reminds me that even when I'm beset by lots of problems it won't be the same tomorrow. Also that however great my angst it is, I'm not dead yet. I can always find a few tiny things I've been putting off so tomorrow really will be better, pay for the central heating, book the bike in to be serviced.

2. Tell people 

Email friends. They won't necessarily respond but some may notice and sympathise. Even more important, tell people you meet. Otherwise they might think you're being antisocial. Ask for what you need: a hug or a talk, text people, phone people, arrange to meet, light up the network of people you know.

3. Walk in Nature

Nothing works as well to restore a mindful state of mind for me as a walk outside. Watching chance happenings, birds soaring, colours in people's gardens, birdsong and the feeling of climbing a hill all help me to feel myself, maybe sad, maybe distracted. So I'm going out walking now... Nature always seems to surprise me with colours, sounds and smells, 

which brings me to:

4. Variety

More variety in food, avoid the cheapest supermarket, have regular drinks and meals, if you don't feel like baking go out and buy a treat. Beware of silently or noisily singing the same old songs, you could be wallowing in morose thoughts ie Leonard Cohen, think of different tunes. Read a poetry book like Staying Alive, mark the poems you'd choose to read aloud to someone. Baking usually helps me but today feels like a day to knit or draw. Any activities that are calming, creative or automatic, colourful. Music too, listening or playing helps me. This is a great opportunity to do things differently.

5. Notice when you forget why you're feeling sad.

This will happen increasingly as time passes but you might even notice it on the first day. It's encouraging to notice how feelings change constantly, sadness to anger, anger to fear. And even a surprising moment of humour or joy. If someone's let me down I can sometimes smile when I remember that I've let people down too. This time the boot's on the other foot.

Just cause and terrorism

People associate religious violence with Islam but the notion of fighting a 'just war' dates back a long way. 

When Rome was sacked  the Visigoths in AD 410 ...

The Sack of Rome by the Barbarians in 410 by Joseph-Noël Sylvestre

Many Romans attributed the Fall of Rome to the tolerance and later adoption of a pacifist religion: Christianity. 

But the shift towards Christianity began with a war:  

According to tradition, Emperor Constantine faced Maxentius, a serious rival to the throne, on a bridge across the Tiber in AD 312.

Constantine looked up at the sun and saw a Christian symbol, a cross of light above it. 
He ordered his soldiers to write Chi-Rho, the first two letters of Christ's name on their shields

Chi-Rho the first 2 letters of Christ in Greek

. Constantine's army won the battle and he attributed his success to divine intervention, refusing to honour the Roman gods on his return. 





A year later, in AD 313, Emperors Constantine and Licinius issued the the Edict of Milan, granting tolerance to all religions, including Christianity. 

Later, Constantine's new Eastern capital, Constantinople had Christian churches built within the city walls, paid for by taxes on non-Christians. 
Ultimately this shift in attitude led to the adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman empire, declared by edict in AD 380

Then in AD 410 Rome was invaded and people blamed religion. But St Augustine wrote City of God in AD 426 to counter the belief that Christianity had been the cause of the Fall of Rome and to put the case for a ' just war'. To be continued...

Intuition and intent

How much control do I really have over what goes on in my brain?

Cognitive behavioural approaches invite us to think that it is our habitual denigrating thoughts which lead us to ruminate on past mistakes and inadequacies. 

All I need to do is to set aside negative thoughts. And that can be immensely powerful. 

I need a range of responses to my dissenting inner voices: 
Stop        I changed my mind      Tell me later   I'm doing the best I can

I find two difficulties with this approach.

1. My uncosncious is at work. My brain may be presenting past failures to me for a good reason. When I find myself humming a tune, I generally find there is something in the mood of the piece or the wording of the lyrics that is immediately relevant to my predicament at that moment, usually something I've been overlooking. Also my unconscious is immensely clever at sabotaging my intent.
2. In order to be creative and open to intuition I need to let my thoughts flow in their own way. Being present is partly stepping aside to accept the mood I'm in. I might be down among the ghosts and monsters of the lower unconscious, a scary but immensely creative place where innocent trees turn into wild unknown worlds. Instead of looking for the stop tap, I want to marvel at the symphony of brain chemicals that is constantly shifting the way I see, hear and feel. 

I'm not comfortable with analogies of the brain as a computer: [reboot, default mode, delete] or as a business [executive function, CEO] I find the natural world more explanatory: [web of life, evolutionary tree]

My model of the self is like a planet and at any moment I find myself located at a ford where my conscious intent crosses the 'flow of consciousness'. 

My intent may be in a position of power or at the opposite pole of no control. The stream may be deep into sadness, in natural mindfulness, mingling with the people around me or high up at its source, in the safe place remote from the present.

All I can do is seek a path through the woods which reminds me of the wonder of life in all its forms, of patterns and healing and recovery.

I hold onto is this conflict between intent and intuition which you could call the battle between will and love.

Natural mindfulness, surprise and curiosity.

I've been thinking that natural mindfulness implies surprise and curiosity. 

Curiosity: having a question in mind provides me with a reason to be observant. It always seems to lead me to something that surprises me. 

Here are some examples of questions that I put to myself when I go out walking.

What's different today?

It could be the wind, the sky, the time of day, the angle of the sun, the signs of the approaching season, the mood of the birds or colours that stand out. Then I check to see if any of these change while I'm walking.

What colours can I see?

One question a painter asks is: 'where is the reddest red?' I try to work systematically through the rainbow but today I found the reddest object near the end of the walk. 

I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed this toadstool if I hadn't been looking for colours.

What's the smallest beauty I can find in nature?

In summer it's possible to do a mini safari by lying on the grass and crawling along to see the smallest plants and creatures at work. In winter it's about studying the bark of trees and fallen twigs to look for shapes and colours in the forest of mosses and lichens. 

What patterns can I see in the plants?

Plants need light, nutrients and water so they congregate where these are most suited for growth. I like to see epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants: ivy and clematis on trees, moss and lichen on stone. Trees have differing patterns according to whether they've grown in thick forest: tall and thin and curving up seeking the light or out in the hedgerows: wide and spreading like specimen trees. Even in winter it's possible to recognise trees: ashes have keys, beech saplings hold their leaves all winter.

Do you have questions that you put when you're out walking?

pop-up animation studio

I'm fascinated by film-making and I'd like to share my interest.

   It's a lie that playing video games is active; it's simply passive consumption of someone else's imagined world. 

All modern forms of entertainment: video games, cinema, TV and internet are essentially passive. 

As a result we spend hours every day staring at screens and tapping out keys. I'm no exception. It's unhealthy and to cap it all we're bombarded with commercials to use more and more of our time in a passive way. No wonder there's so much obesity. 

The pop-up animation studio

And yet Britain leads the way in innovating ever more ingenious games and series.

   Why let someone else have all the creative fun of making something new and original?

People need to discover how easy it is to create original images and to animate them into a film and tell a story visually. [in my humble opinion] Paintings can move.

There is nothing so creative as making your own images and seeing them move

It's possible to make a film in a day. It may not win an Oscar but it shows you how quickly modern software can composit a film out of a hundred stop motion photos. 

And with attention to a storyboard, characters and lighting it can be a film worth watching.

  So I've come up with the idea of a pop-up animation studio: a tripod, camera and laptop and craft materials, such as card and paper. It's small enough to fbe easily transportable by car or train so I can facilitate workshops around the country.

  It's useful to have several copies of animation characters so I now use a template for a male and female character printed out on card in advance. They fit together with brads, little black fasteners. If I use black card the brads will be almost invisible. They're black so you can alter them and colour them in on the day. 

So there it is and my next workshop on February 6th in Birmingham will show how robust the idea is.

Mindful use of failure

An article on Life-affirming imperfection yesterday reminded me of the importance of failure in creative work.

That sounds counterintuitive but all artists have more or less success in creating some visions. A lot of people are put off by failure in their early attempts. 

How do artists and designers use failure?

Laura Snoad [@laurasnoad] writes about how success is often followed by failure, using the same approach may not work a second time; it may feel stale. 
But failure in a career could be serious; we need to know how to fail fast ; how to pinpoint the obstacles that prevent a piece of work from succeeding. 

Creative writers have critique groups; artists have muses, people who recognise the artist's intent and who can say what works and what needs to change.. It is up to the artists to find a way to respond.

Giving your self time to experiment before launching into a project is vital. 

A new character for an animation will require several iterations before the best materials and design are found.

In my work in hospitals I was interested in the rescue curve. How was a mistake such as the wrong patient, wrong dose, wrong treatment, recognised before it led to disastrous consequences? 

Atul Gawande devoted the 2014 Reith lectures to this question Why do doctors fail?

We need a blame free culture, an understanding that adverse events happen often and are worth studying in order to identify high risk places. In short, mindfulness.

As in life: breaking an arm abroad is not a tragedy; it's how we minimise the risk and deal with it when it happens.
It's something I should apply in life a bit more: experimenting more, altering, trying something different.

Cameras, paintings and original art

Do cameras help or hinder original art?

I'm considering leaving my camera at home and just being present

maybe having a handy sketchbook with me at times

I have often wondered if amateur artists are too reliant on photographs. Some subjects I see in exhibitions, such as sunrises 

 

are better as photos than paintings or drawings.

I've certainly benefitted from comparing a photo with an oil painting sketch I've done directly from life, only checking with a photo afterwards.

but it makes me wonder what's special about a painting: how does it convey emotion unconsciously?

A couple of months ago I bought an entry level DSLR camera but I've found that it's too large to fit in my pocket as the compact 'point and shoot' camera used to. 

I have to carry a camera bag and so it's harder to take quick pictures like this:

Then a short time ago, I misplaced my compact camera, 
so in an effort to apply mindfulness,I'ver decided to leave a camera behind. This will be a big change for me in 2016. I can't capture the colourful landscapes that I took photos of in 2015. 

On the other hand I'm not constantly experiencing life through a lens. A camera distances me from the raw experience; I'm constantly moving around to find the best angle. Maybe I can store the subjective experience better by being alert, storing as much as I can of what I can see, feel and hear.

If I draw in a sketch book I won't be able to capture whole landscapes in beautiful colours; I'll have to concentrate on more distinct subjects like buildings, trees and interiors, but is people that interest me most. 

 As you can see, sketching people in my local coffee shop is causing a drift in my drawings towards cartoon-like characterisation, which may be closer to what I need in order to create models for animation.

I will still use photographs. I'll talk about how useful photographs can be in a future blog.