Monday 30 November 2015

Photography Induction!

Shutter Speed

Having a slow shutter speed makes photographs seem blurred as the shutter takes a longer time to open and close and catches more light. While the lens stays open the action still continues so this makes the photo blurred, this can be used on purpose for effect.




Having a fast shutter speed almost freezes the action and makes everything look static and not blurred. This is usually what is popularly used as this allows for more detail instead of the objects being lost in the blur.




ISO

The ISO of an image is basically how sensitive the camera is to light, the higher the ISO the more sensitive it is and the lower the ISO the less sensitive. I have played around with different ISOs in different lighting to get either a dark or correctly exposed images depending on what ISO I have used at the time.

Low ISO in natural light 
High ISO in natural light
Aperture (Depth of Field)

The aperture is how open or closed the lens it, and it is measured in f numbers. The higher the f number the smaller the lens is close and the lower the f number the more open the lens will be. Using aperture you can create depth of field as well as creating little depth of field depending on what type of effect you want to create. Below I have used aperture to create a depth of field by using a low f number and this focuses the lens on the nearest subject and puts the rest out of focus.





Thursday 19 November 2015

Effective Presentation Tips

We had a seminar about how our presentations should be and how they can be successful and I took some valuable notes I'm going to share! This was a really useful thing to think about and discuss mainly because as a student I have been made to give presentations to my classmates since high school and I feel like in this time you can actually pick up some bad habits and by going over this topic it can help this. I know for a fact that I have definitely given presentations where I used bullet points and clip art!!
  • A presentation should be a communication of your story or journey and is a vehicle for sharing ideas, thoughts, concepts or a resolution of a project.
  • It should convey meaningful information concisely.
  • You need to know your audience!
  • Assume that your audience knows nothing or very little about your work.
  • Inform your audience about what you're doing.
  • Explain who you are and be yourself.
  • Explain your role and what you have done in your role.
  • Explain how you got to where you are or how you plan to get there.
  • Explain how you will move forward in your project or topic.
  • It's not about you.
  • Always know your subject and keep it simple!
  • Don't use clip art - unprofessional.
  • Use imagery so that you can get to your point easier.
  • Avoid using bullet points (Unlike this blog post)
  • Slides should be should be visible from 8ft.
  • Be enthusiastic and keep the attention of your audience!

Tuesday 17 November 2015

Antman - Animation in Film

In the new film Antman it's really clear how animation can be used in big blockbusters to create a scene that would never have been able to be brought to life without it. I found this article in a magazine about how they went through the process of animating lots of little ants, but they are made to look a similar size to Antman to give the illusion of him shrinking down to their size. I liked this example of animation in film as it shows how important animation can be in all mediums and how it is no restricted to one type of medium. I also liked it because I feel that the more out there the narrative the more the need for animation is needed in films today and this is a great example of how film and animation can work really well together to create quite a realistic narrative. 

Walter Peregoy

I found another concept artist that has previously worked for Disney called Walter Peregoy and I really loved his work, below is some of his paintings for 101 Dalmatians. I really love concept art for animations as they really establish the overall feel and colour palette that will be used. I particularly like Peregoy's works because his scenes are not only beautiful, but they create the meaning behind a scene and when watching 101 Dalmatians you can tell that the animators really took Peregoy's work into consideration and made it come to life. I also love his use of colour here as he uses lots of blues and greys to create a gloomy and dull meaning without the need for anything else.



Oculus - Technology


New technology is constantly coming out but I found this new piece of equipment that is soon to be released, which as someone who is studying animation this is something that can impact the industry. This piece of technology is something that is for video games and it is a controller that makes visual reality games feel even more real by making the player feel that the controller is actually their hand. I feel that this is a major step into the future as games will become more and more hands-on and this could possibly even catch on in other digital industries such as animation. What I like about this is that it's something that's different and an advancement in technology and it leaves new possibilities in the ways audiences consume products. Below is a video I found on the Oculus and I found it really interesting to see how the people are hands on with the equipment.



Introducing Oculus Story Studio from Story Studio on Vimeo.

Thursday 12 November 2015

Mary Blair

Mary Blair was a designer for Disney studios back in the 1950s and her work inspired many of the studio's productions due to her great use of colour. I really liked her work when looking at it and it really stood out to me while reading the book CartoonModern, I liked her as her work was well laid out and had a magical feel to it. The way Blair colours her work is one of the main reasons it stood out to me and se creates different lightings within the colour choices she uses. Below the painting of the horses and carriage picking up Cinderella is glowing in the painting and this is present in the final animation, her use of colour and design really have helped shape the famous animations produced at Disney.


When looking at her beautiful concept art for planning the different animations, it's clear that the final animations have taken a lot of inspiration from her visions and this is something that is very inspiring about her as an artist.



I feel that even though she did not directly animate at Disney, her works have still influenced the final animations and I haven't thought about this as a role in animation before so it really inspired me.