OUIL 504 End of Module Evaluation

Printed Pictures Proposal

Moving Pictures Proposal

FINAL OUTCOMES - IDEA PICTURES

EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATIONS:

FINAL OUTCOMES - PRINTED PICTURES

FINAL OUTCOMES - MOVING PICTURES

Woodland of Weir from Jay Stelling on Vimeo.

KEY MOMENTS

I'm starting to feel a little emotional looking back at this module. It feels like such a long time and now it's almost over. I've compiled some of the key moments in this presentation just to highlight where things changed and what the biggest influences were on me during this module. Where things began, where they've taken me.

I'd almost forgotten that I was considering studying other authors... Poe wasn't the only option but since I've invested so much into learning about him, it's weird to think that it could so easily have taken a completely different direction had I not made that decision. I hate decisions and this is probably why - how something as tiny as picking Poe over Gaiman/Carrington might've changed my life - one little decision affects so many other things and had I not made that decision, I would have come out of this module with the different work, different experiences...

So I guess choosing Poe was the main KEY MOMENT. There was a lot of initial research and making and sketching and pondering before that point, but it was the act of saying "POE" that began the journey, that's when my invested responses to his work began.
But I also think the reasons behind me choosing Poe were important too, the obsession I've developed with crows (they're following me), the insistence I had that Poe was speaking to me beyond the grave. I've not moved on from that, I still do think I had some kind of spiritual awakening when it came to tumbling into the work of Edgar A Poe (please don't take me seriously, even though I'm very serious. I know I'm crazy).
Just reading Gaiman's work, Kafka's fiction, Carrington's novels will have changed me in some way. Maybe I started to fall back into children's horror (Coraline) when I read Gaiman, and that probably influenced the approach I took to Poe, making his work visually enticing for younger readers.

Surrounding myself with spooky/Gothic art by the likes of David Roberts and Edward Gorey helped me to visualise the tone and atmosphere of Poe. Realising how it can be achieved and appreciating similarly themed illustrations was a turning point for me, finally jumping out of the research and onto paper with inspiration to draw.

Visiting lecturer Louise Lockhart presented her prints and it demonstrated to me how print exists in different contexts, how I could push the boundaries of this brief to make something that was printed but not necessarily a print.
I was so nervous about printing but a transformative moment was when I found a way to make it suit me and my way of working - cutting up the mono prints and 'building' with them.

Making moving pictures gave me confidence that I can animate things myself. Re-watching animations from my childhood drew me back into that world and I applied the storyboarding skills Fred taught in his lecture to deconstruct them, discovering what makes them successful.

MEGA CRIT BEFORE SUBMISSION

Today was the final mega crit before submission so a last chance to get feedback and look at all the work produced for this module.

Above is a photo of my work all set up and ready to go! Not much has changed in my printed work since the last crit except for the presentation of it because I have been working on SB3 Moving Pictures after drawing a line under SB2 before Christmas, so it does feel weird putting out this work that everyone's already seen but it's really rewarding to see all of the outcomes from the module (SB1, 2 & 3) presented together, professionally, for the first time.

I think there's definitely a consistency in my work. I stayed with the blue/black colour scheme and maintained the spooky atmosphere/scenes throughout the module. It all looks like it fits together on the table, they're all from the same world. What has changed is my processes, my presentation and my attitude. At the start of this module I had been working on model making all summer, I was beginning to conduct myself as a model maker and I had become quite dogged that this is how I work. Going into SB2, I was not happy to be putting model making aside but I went for it and compromised. I still want to make, but I can still make scenes in 2-dimensions.

We've achieved so much since the start of this module!

Annie's Presentation was incredible. Beyond professional cellophane and labels, Annie made her own little folio with pages and a fastening! She also made a matching box for bulkier prints. Really impressive. Have I done enough in terms of presenting my work for submission?

I have labels for mine and everything is set up, but for submission all I can do it put it all in a folder... I can't lay it out in order or have things propped up on stands like this.

So many lovely comments. Feeling confident!

Sting Showing

Showing the stings on the big screen:

Megan Naylor Wardle's and mine harmonised really well. Neither of us had seen the other's, yet we ended up producing really similarly toned stings - similar settings, similar orchestral music. Would make a great collaboration/exhibition?

Stephen Tran's animation was really simple - only a few assets moved but it was so well executed. Obvious interest/passion for animation and anime - smooth storytelling.

Humour in Kieran Blakey's Carrington sting - matches his personal tone of voice. 

Showing my sting - looks great on the big screen, really happy with it. Great reaction/response (even a 'woo!' from someone in the room... not me I promise), so I am pleased!

Sneak Peak 505

I CAN'T WAIT! No, I probably won't be printmaking in this next module because it's not my favourite process, but I know that I can do it if I do need to/want to again... I want to continue my work ethic, organisation and positive attitude - full steam ahead! Roll on the MAKING.

Woodland of Weir

It was night in the lonesome October 

      Of my most immemorial year; 

It was hard by the dim lake of Auber, 

      In the misty mid region of Weir— 

It was down by the dank tarn of Auber, 

      In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

Woodland of Weir from Jay Stelling on Vimeo.

I think it's finished! Trying to tell myself that I don't need to add or change anything else even though I want to. It's not that I think it needs more, just that I would like to keep working on it, make it even better, keep playing around.
Despite all the technical horror of After Effects, I've had fun making this animation. I'm proud of it, my first born child.

I think it's successful in capturing the atmosphere of Poe's writing. It's dark and mysterious and matches my printed pictures outcome. It's moving and melancholy, which is what I intended. It's everything I wanted it to be and I'm taking a moment to sit back and appreciate that. Celebrate!

If I could do it again, I'd make the crow's movement better (different angle, wings moving up and down from the side of the body not just bending in the middle), more the detail on the wings, more trees in the background.
And, again, I can't help but imagine how chilling this scene could be if it was made physically. Tactile tree textures, real smoke/fog, DEPTH - not just layers but real depth in distance.
After Effects is annoying but really useful software that I'd like to work with again. I'd love to work with animators and musicians to create something awesome with people who really know what they're doing!

Feedback:
Beth says it has 'ominous vibes'

FINAL TWEAKS

Bronte says less vignette,
James says not to add flowers or other wildlife moving because it's supposed to be a winter/dead forest scene.
Josh shed a little tear! He found the piano music really emotional...
HD option? Make sure you're exporting correctly.
Fin said music is emotional, it's very spooky and he wants to go there.

Me: "So is it less boring now? You said the house book was boring. Is this boring too?"
Fin: "Hey - I only said it was boring because you said you'd put some severed heads and hands in there!"
Me: "Oh, so it's not boring?!"
Fin: "Nah. It's cool. But severed heads would be cooler."

Dream within a Dream

Dream within a Dream from Jay Stelling on Vimeo.

Added a few things mentioned in the feedback.

+ Vignetting - does this make it too dark? I love how stormy and intense it makes the atmosphere. Much more serious, without it could pass for a fairy tale forest.
+Increased the amount of rain, giving the scene greater depth (rainfall in layers, suggestion of depth of field)
+Warmer glow in the window, shines through the ink splodge type at the end. Mysterious and intriguing.

- Crow's still not moving its beak at the same time as the cawing
- More trees/background behind the background?

I've stuck to the initial intention in my proposal form and I have impressed myself by actually achieving this. Even after discovering roughing last year, I found it difficult to follow that initial plan as I would come up with better ideas later on... but I knew that this storyboard could work and that it was just up to me to make it happen.
I stayed with my storyboard and made something I am proud of, though I am sick of listening to that same soundtrack over and over again now.

Photos of my Printed Pictures

I've signed up for a photo lighting induction but that's not until the 19th January, which is after our submission for 504 (17th). I have had a photo lighting induction before and I have a Nikon DSLR camera so I decided to have a go at taking them at home.
I have a set of Zennox mini studio lights and I brought home a few sheets of A2 white card for a backdrop.

I reckon I did a good job with what I had at hand, but the white backdrop washed out the white card of the 'cut-out' sheets. I should have used another colour for this, but I wanted the photos to look professional and clean, thinking any other colour would look tacky or dark.
I need to refresh myself on how to enhance photos on Photoshop since I have got a bit lazy with editing and often rely on editing sites like Befunky, which reduces the quality.

I am really happy with how the house looks in photos, you can tell that it is a fold-out book, that it isn't a flat piece of card, and it demonstrates how the book works.
I also tried to take some photos of the cut-out dolls but they cast lots of shadows and kept falling over.

Sting Progress

The Raven from Jay Stelling on Vimeo.

After a brief chat with Ben I decided to let the 'road/street' issue go, to leave my printed pictures and to throw some Jay magic into this animation. I shouldn't feel so bad for being organised and printing early. I was ready and managed my time so that I could focus on one brief at a time. Other people are still printing/making pictures, but that doesn't mean that their pictures are better than mine or that I haven't spent enough time on them, I just did it in a different order.

I've been fiddling about with the assets and layers for a long time. After effects takes so long and I've had millions of technical problems but I still really like the software. It's so much fun to see my pictures moving and to have the ability to add/remove/change things in the scene so easily (unlike stop motion).

I found out how to use the puppet pin tool and it's so helpful! It means I can move the wings as one layer but as though there are joints, and the movement ripples the rest of the asset (e.g. feathers waft too).

Discovered a rain effect in After Effects and applied this to enhance the melancholy, dark atmosphere. More rain sounds! Thunder? Lightening, too far? Don't want the weather to distract from the crow but I do want to make an immersive and moody scene.

I'm much happier with the way it's looking. The bird seems less comical/childish (though it still does appear to be smiling/smirking?), the bird lands much more realistically and gracefully.
I finally worked out how to make a light turn on in the house but it's not as warm a light as I want. I'm also not sure how many lights to have turn on - all of them? Just one?

PEER REVIEW
Impromptu feedback

Bronte: The motion happens at a nice pace, not too slow or too fast. And the music is brilliant, really sets a somber. The way you've made the wings move is ace.

James (Graphic Designer/boyfriend): mood much moodier now, the soundtrack is dreamy and haunting. Careful to match the cawing to the bird's beak opening and closing. Make the light at the end brighter. Can you add shadows? Vignette? Fog? It suits the tone of the author and works well with the printed pictures book. A snippet of Poe's world.

13 Days Left

We have 13 days until submission for OUIL504.
I've finished my printed pictures. I'd finished before Christmas so that I could focus on Moving Pictures, but knowing that I still have time left makes me want to quickly redo things/reprint/add things, but there is a time to stop and move forward with everything else. There's no point messing around with it when it's finished and I spent money on getting it printed. I just want to take some professional photos of it now.

I am well on the way with my moving pictures. I could submit what I have so far but I know it can be better, so I am going to spend the rest of the time left on improving the animation.

Things to get done:

• Improve the crow (above is a screenshot of this improved version so far- much more detail, more layers that can move separately)
• Add some more scenic assets - plants, rocks etc.
• Something needs to happen with the house at the end - having Poe in the window might be too much and too complex, so perhaps just a light turning on?
• Professional photos of my printed pictures

We had a peer tutorial today but several things went wonky. I was feeling anxious, the group got sidetracked and two of us didn't get time to show our work. I'll need to arrange an impromptu group tutorial to get feedback this week.

The Road/Street Fiasco

After the last mega crit, I realised something...
That I titled Poe's house as 'North Amity Road' when really it's 'Amity Street'.
And there's nothing I can do because it's already been printed. There are no more print bookings.
I could go and get it printed at a business printers in Leeds but that would cost a lot and it would just cause me more stress to re-print.

I've been debating for the last two weeks whether to admit to this mistake or just to brush it under the carpet. Everyone I've spoken to about it has told me to forget about it and pretend I didn't notice, that no one else will notice and that it doesn't matter, but that's not how my lovely little anxiety worryhead works. No, no, no. I KNOW ABOUT IT, so it matters. It's been niggling away at me.
So I have to do something about it.

OR - it could make sense in that I altered the truth. It's not an accurate representation of Poe's house, or Poe, etc. It's an interpretation of his world and his home, I even set it in a woodland scene rather than the city of Baltimore so it's not geographically correct anyway. It's based on truth... the characters, the house and the furniture all are but they're not precise or designed to be so. They're made to be my version, my printed pictures in response to Edgar's haunting works.
Perhaps Amity Road is almost a parody of Amity Street - an alternative universe... a parallel reality in which things are similar but not quite as they should be (a science fiction plot even Poe himself would devour).
BUT AM I JUST MAKING EXCUSES FOR MYSELF HERE? I didn't choose to title it 'Amity Road' instead of 'Amity Street' on purpose. It was a mistake.

Solution:
I've digitally amended the document anyway. SB2 was about PRINTED PICTURES, and that is where my attention was poured. I printed pictures, this is a tiny error in the text that doesn't really matter, but if it was to be sold in the gift shop at the Poe Museum, it could then be reprinted from this document to make geographical sense.

Scenes and Settings - Moving Pictures

The translation from printed pictures into moving pictures. How am I going to make these still images move?
My printed pictures will form the scene, since I have been focusing on Edgar Allan Poe's world and gothic settings.

Looking for examples of similarly spooky settings/atmospheres, thinking about how I can animate it to make it even more creepy-crawly.

ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT DREARY

Crow Flying from Jay Stelling on Vimeo.

I spent all day working on this, just trying to get the basic elements in place and moving the way I want them to. Even working with my storyboard so I knew where each asset should be in each frame, it took a very long time and I'm not even finished.
So glad I did make a storyboard because I dread to think how long it would have taken without this kind of planning.
Youtube tutorials are so nerdy but brilliant, thank you for solving my many idiotJaymoments.
Majorly happy with the soundtrack, it's just like a film and I think it's appropriate for the tone of my author.
Not sure how well the printed textures transfer to on-screen. They just look a bit messy and random since they're all different directions, overwhelming with them moving too! Feel a bit motion sick.

The crow looks so rough and basically like a flying fish. He needs sorting out but at least it's a placeholder for now so I know where it will be and how it will move.

I'm proud because this is the first proper animation I've made but I just feel that it could be 1000x more immersive, unique and spooky with a 3-Dimensional set and puppets. (forever pining for puppets)

Panning Trees

Trees Sample from Jay Stelling on Vimeo.

Doesn't feel real yet. Not immersive, alive or deep. Needs more layers and movement. The crow will add a lot of this when it flies through the trees, but it's still just a flat image at the moment. It needs to be a world, not a picture.



Trees Sample Depth from Jay Stelling on Vimeo.

Having some issues with stretching! In order to export to H.264 format (Vimeo required format) using After Effects 2016 I had to export using Media Encoder, which keeps stretching and adding a black border to the video.

STORYBOARD FOR ANIMATION

http://www.parkablogs.com/sites/default/files/corpse-bride-13.jpg

These are storyboards in action, used by Selick, Burton and their team in the production of The Corpse Bride. I found it quite surprising to see how closely the animators followed the storyboard. 

I thought I knew how and why storyboards are used in the industry and I expected it to be more of a plan, how a script dictates the lines but the actors will add their own accents and pronunciation... but this example shows just how strictly the animators have followed the storyboard, including composition, framing and expressions.

Story boarding is much stricter in stop-motion animation than other forms of moving pictures because unlike computer generated animations, assets can't be moved or edited much afterwards. The movement is all done painstakingly by hand. Once a shot is taken and the crew move on, the frame can't easily be done-over so it needs to be done right the first time.

http://www.parkablogs.com/sites/default/files/corpse-bride-06.jpg

Storyboards would be especially important on such a big scale, large budget production because there are so many hands on board and so much at stake. It takes a really long time to make a stop-motion film like this, so there's no time to be wasted. Storyboards are used to keep to schedule, working from each frame and paying attention to each individual detail.

 All of the animators need to know where each puppet should be for each frame. Rigs need to be set up in position and moved whenever a puppet moves.

The quality and finesse of The Corpse Bride could not have been achieved without such a story boarding system in place. Alongside all the talent that goes into a film like this, there's also logistics in thinking about WHAT, WHERE, HOW and WHEN each asset moves.

The storyboard is the backbone of the movie and a vital part of the stop-motion process.

MEGA CRIT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Presentation

I'm trying to pitch my printed pictures as a product. My outcome might not be a conventional print, with a border, or a signature, or be framed. It's also not a bound book with a front cover, pages and a blurb. It's something of its own so it needs to find its own place.

I chose to do something out of the box and not follow the brief directly, so I need to make sure that it does still answer the brief and work as a product, despite its atypical format.

Since I've been learning about the Poe House in Baltimore, I thought that my printed pictures could be the sort of product stocked in their gift shop, so I'm pitching it with that as my goal.

I think it looks professional. It's packaged, titled, printed and displayed for this crit.

Would Have/ Could Have/ Should Have

I would much prefer the dolls if they were more tangible and tactile. Using print has shown me how easy and quick it is to create textures and how these can add a lot more information/tone to flat images. Worked especially well in continuing my eerie atmosphere, but I would have liked to try and apply these textures to 3D puppets, e.g. printing onto fabric that could be worn by the puppets as costumes. I restricted myself from doing this because it wouldn't be beneficial to my submission and would distract me from the actual process of printing pictures, so this is something I can revisit in my own personal practice.

My strengths are in character design and narrative, but I didn't do that... I had a story all planned out and yet I changed my mind and did something different. I'm almost regretting it because I know that the book would have been a safer option, an easier option and probably better showcase of my skills.

BUT I WENT WITH MY GUT, I was brave (or stupid/cocky) and went out there.

Feedback

People were drawn to my desk because it's different - a novelty idea, unique response to the brief. I reckon this is something people admire/enjoy(/probably get annoyed with) about my work; I often manage to do something unusual and unexpected. This is about my ideas and concept, the way I respond to briefs.

Someone asked me whether I'd written my own brief and why I was allowed to do this/why weren't they...I wasn't allowed. I took risks last year and that's when my most exciting work happened, so I am taking risks again. I'm just praying that I'm not also putting my grades at risk too.

Although not working with my preferred medium, I have made some work I'm happy with and my peers praised the use of print - 'textures add even more character', 'textures enhance the theme', so this is encouragement for me to use it again/continue on this route in my animation. On the right track.

ASKING QUESTIONS

Asked if it was boring, after Fin said so... people said no but they are NOT MY TARGET AUDIENCE. Or are they? Who will visit the Poe museum? Look at stats?

Does it matter if they're not my original intended audience if they are my ACTUAL audience (would have it on their shelf)

Ask more people Fin's age?

Finding it really helpful to have this space to ask questions in feedback sessions and to give myself time to think of q's to ask beforehand. WANT RESPONSES? ASK FOR THEM. Point at the issues, the wobbles and get another opinion.

LOOKING AROUND THE ROOM

Well-crafted prints - signed, borders, professional

Test prints/mock-ups, few people have finished all their prints. Most are waiting to do them during/after Christmas... Different ways of working. I would not be able to cope with the balancing of attention between sting and printed pictures. I wanted to get PP completed before I tackled MP, but other people work differently and can manage their time that way.

SPEAKING TO FIRST YEARS

First year is when I worked out what I was doing/how it fits into illustration and not necessarily drawings. They're doing the Tell An Untold Story brief; this time last year I was busy wandering up hills - a lot of research but I also took a risk in MAKING the scene in felt THAT WAS A BIG RISK and I had a lot of fun, got some great responses but also moved away from what the brief was asking me to do TELL A STORY not just make a scene... so this time I'm trying to reflect on the brief constantly. Asking myself questions. Checking up on where I am/where I am going.

BUT BRING BACK SOME OF THAT HOW HILL FUN!

I was having lots of fun when I started researching Poe, but it seems to have faded a little with the pressure of printing. BRING IT BACK FOR THE ANIMATION.

THIS IS WHERE THE FUN HAPPENS. LET'S MAKE THINGS MOVE.