PPP2 - Evaluation

A Creative Strategy - PPP Presentation

In this recent presentation that I did, I had to analyse who I now was an animator and learner as well as my progression through level 5 PPP and Responsive.

I started by going over how I felt at the beginning of level 5 and how I felt about certain aspects of animation such as stop-motion. In the last PPP presentation of level 4 I explained that this was a major area I wanted to explore and one of my main interests for the next year.

I then went on to talk about the beginning of the responsive module, as at the start of the year I was eager to get a big head start on the module and produced two animations straight away that were fully digital. I explained how I wasn't really proud of these animations and that I learnt from the mistake of choosing digital as it was something I was most comfortable with at the time. I wish, looking back now, that I had gone with my heart and experimented with stop-motion. However, this still gave me a good learning experience as I had never entered live briefs before.

Next, I talked about the other side of responsive, which was the group animation we created for the brief 'Thirsty Planet'. This was a papercut animation that I was really proud of in the end, and I feel this might have also been due to being part of a team, where I feel I work best.

My next slide explained how I have built my social media presence over the past year and how this has benefitted me as an animator. One of my main goals for this year was to develop my portfolio of work as I felt I didn't really like the animations I made from the first year and I was only just getting to grips with animation as a whole. This year I now have multiple stop-motion animations posted onto my Vimeo as well as behind the scenes pictures built up on my Instagram. Continuing this will be really good for me as having something easily accessible for others to see my work is always a good thing.

I also spoke about my interactions with professionals within the animation industry and the way that I have been using LinkedIn to talk to people casually. I have really enjoyed this part of PPP, as it has made me more comfortable approaching people as they actually aren't so scary and are actually really lovely! I also made a connection at Aardman, where he said I can talk to him anytime about tips or if I want any pointers of my work.

The other week, we visited Factory and Makinnon and Saunders. I talked about how this has inspired me as an animator and allowed me to be more confident in the fact that I know I want to be a stop-motion animator.

I also compared my work from this time last year to now to basically show the vast improvement in content and style I have achieved over this past year. This is something I am really proud of.

Puppets were another thing I compared as I have developed my puppet and model making skills over level 5. I feel these slides were important to show as it shows my practical development.

Into level 6, I wanted to just go over my future plans such as maybe trying replacement animation and lip sync as well as trying out some new puppet-making methods. I especially want to focus on lip sync as this will be something that I will need to have the ability to do in the industry and to show in my showreel.

My other plans for the next year are to practice my walk cycles and this is another thing I want to include in my end of uni showreel!

Finally, I went over the summary of the whole year and how I definitely feel that I have progressed and been able to establish myself a little more as an animator and find my 'niche'. I'm really happy with the way that level 5 has turned out and I'm excited for the next year to come!

Submitting to a Film Festival! - Keighley Film Festival

I was recently looking for at free to enter film festivals when I came across the Keighley Film Festival, it is free to enter and there is a short film animation category where it has to be under 10 mins in length.



All of my current animations are very short and only around 30 seconds in length, however I was was like why not give it a go anyway! So, I entered my film 'Touch', that I created for my COP module as this one of my favourite animations I have done so far. Below is when I had sent off my animation! The festival is actually located just outside of Leeds, which I didn't realise until I saw the 'leedscitycollege' email address, what a coincidence.



I am excited to see if my animation gets selected to be shown and I hope to hear back from them soon.

Building Puppets Progression

Puppets is something that I am still new to now and this year I decided to develop my skills in this so that I could practice making some other puppets over the Summer, knowing the materials needed and the best method. Even though I don't want to be a puppet maker, I still want nice puppets for my future animations!

This was this first puppet I had made in first year. As my first ever puppet it wasn't too bad, however the arms were way to bulky and she was completely off balance!



I wanted to try plasticine again, just because it's fun to mould and animate with so I made this character for my COP2.



This character was a much better puppet and I kept him super simple so that he was easy to animate. I wanted him to look a little rough and not completely perfect, which is why I left fingerprints on him, as the message was the imperfections of stop-motion.

I also learnt a new method of puppet making! Felting.



Needlefelting was completely new to me but I really wanted to try it as I loved the effect and I was really inspired after seeing 'Oh Willy'. I have made two puppets in this method now as I like it so much! It's actually really simple, but it looks really refined and effective in animation. I had the issue of it possibly boiling in animation, however if you trim the puppet with scissors before animating this helps keep the stray hairs down.



My future plans for making puppets is to possibly make a human character next and try making some costumes and see how I can progress in that side of puppet building as I have so far only made characters that have no clothes.

Makinnon & Saunders Visit

While going to Manchester to see the FACTORY studio, we also in the later part of the day got to see round puppet workshops and the actual Makinnon & Saunders studios!

Above is the outside of the studio and it didn't even have a name attached, which was really odd. On the other hand, this was explained that they do this purposely so that when they have high profile work, no one has the desire to try and come to sneak a peek.



Firstly, we went to the sculpting room where they had probably over 100 sculptures all round the room of famous characters. They also had lots of rough models where they were trying out different styles for characters, which was really interesting to see and again I couldn't take pictures as they don't want all their secrets out there! They used the method of sculpting a model our of plasticine and then painting on to it to get a better idea of how the model will look, a great way of working and planning.



We also went around the other workshops such as costume, paint and metal. I personally, like the costume department the best and if I were to go off the idea of being an animator this would be where I would want to direct myself next.

On the last part of the tour we went around the studios they had and I didn't actually know Makinnon and Saunders had studios, I just thought they made puppets. So, the first studio we went round was where they were filming for the number one Cbeebies show 'Twirlywoos'.  I had never heard of this show as someone who doesn't really watch children's TV, but it was really cute when I saw all of the puppets and sets. On this tour, we actually got to meet Barry Purves someone who I have read many books and even based most of my COP essay around! Barry was really lovely and he had lots to say about literally everything, which was really insightful. I felt in this studio I much preferred it as there was so much more going on and loads of animators to talk to. Everyone was really nice and open to questions and a chat and I was really surprised by how open everyone was. This atmosphere made me happy, as it felt like a really nice and friendly place to be and work. We also went round another of M&S' studio where they were filming for 'Raa Raa the Noisy Lion'. Here we got to go into the art department and speak to some of the people who worked in there. I really liked the art departments in both of the studios and if I were to go down any other route in stop-motion, this would be a cool place to work in.

FACTORY Visit

This week I took the opportunity to go to Manchester and visit the FACTORY stop-motion studio. I had never been to a stop-motion studio before and I had only ever watched footage of the 'behind the scenes', so this was an amazing experience to actually get to see it for myself.

The day began by visiting FACTORY, where we first went round the first studio where we were showed around by Phil Chalk, the managing director of FACTORY. (Below)



As they had just got over a massive production, there wasn't really anyone about to talk to, however we still got to see the amazing sets and props they had made for a new production. Next, we went into a sound studio, where they showed us the mixing desks ect. This was really cool as the studio actually made all their own foley sounds, which isn't that common!

On the last part of the factory tour, which was my favourite part, we got to have a tour round the production of the new Clangers! It was so cute, but I couldn't take any pictures because the episodes hadn't been released yet. The backgrounds of the set were blue gradient backgrounds with stars, so I asked how they created it and they said that the stars were just holes punched in the material and light shining through. It made a really lovely effect.



We also went up to the art department where they were making props and where the puppets were stored and I got to hold a Clanger puppet, the soup dragon and the metal chicken. The puppets were so well made and they had the most smooth joints, a big contrast to our wire puppets!



Whilst we were in the art room, we also got a chance to talk to Chris Tichborne, who has worked on Corpse Bride, Fantastic Mr Fox and Coraline. He gave us some great advice about showreels where he said it's good practice to download walk cycles from YouTube and break them down and just copy them until you get a hang of it, so that you can start to understand it a little more in your own head. Walk cycles for me personally are something I do struggle with, so hearing this advice has inspired me to work on them as one day I aspire to be a stop-motion animator.



After visiting this studio, I loved the atmosphere so much and it really opened my eyes to a studio that is not too far from my hometown. Factory would definitely be somewhere I would love to do some work experience or even further, and I didn't even know it was so close by! This visit also gave me the confidence in becoming a stop-motion animator as a lot of people say that there's no future in it or that there isn't a lot of work, however the other side to this is that there aren't a mass amount of stop-motion animators in comparison to 3D, which means less competition!