Research Class Exercise

For the artist research, I will be looking at Tim Burton. Tim Burton is a producer, writer and an artist, working on major films such as Edwards Scissorhands (1990), The Corpse Bride (2005) and Frankenweenie (2012). I will be researching about how his work was produced and also reflect on how it will work on my major project.


I will be researching particularly on Tim Burton's artworks, here are some of the examples he had produced.

Trick or Treat (1980)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

The work he has produced reflects on his upbringing, and therefore creating a specific artstyle that has become synonymous with his name. Tim's artstyle is based around elongated shapes and people and gothic theme.

There are some few facts that I discovered while I was researching about Tim Burton

• He was animator apprentice with Walt Disney Studio
• Vincent was his first film, a six minute black and white stop motion animation
• Alice in the Wonderland is Burton's highest grossing film in 2010.
• Burton and Bonham Cater have two children, and Johny Depp is godfather to both.

 I learned a lot about Tim Burton's achievements and his unique theme has become an icon in the movie industry. Not only that, I take insipirations about his specific art style and his theme on which he makes his stories. I believe his usage of emotions despite in dark theme is important and something I can take notes on especially when it comes animations made on my own.

Research into Animation

Conveying information in a form of a moition dates back as far as 30000 BC to 1500 AD. Drawings have been seen carved on stones to depict a scene or how past life was. A great example of Egyptian drawings.

Fast forwarding to 1900s to 1930s, the start of animation begins with simple silent drawings, one of the most prominent moment in animation starts with Steamboat Willie from from 1923. This became a pivotal for stop motion animation and commencing motion picture as a new form of entertainment. 

Fast forwading in the 1980s, The Adventure of André and Wally B became the first 3D rendered short, and laid the foundation for Pixar to create a feature lenght film 11 years later by the name of Toy Story.

From 2D to 3D, and 2D becoming ever more detailed and 3D become more realistic, animation and art sees no boundary to striking new ways of displaying motion and telling stories. Animation is on the verge where computer generation and hand drawn are working at an optimal speed and the only thing that is left is with a story to tell.

 

Research through Animation

 Devices such as iPad and graphic tablets that connect to the computer has advanced the way animation is done. And so for this, I will be using 2 apps for my major project, Callipeg and Storyboard.

 Callipeg is a simple animation software that allows you to draw stop motion animation by putting key frames in a timeline. It is a great beginners app for animators starting for the first time I will use to learn the basic fundementals tools are used in animation softwares. Callipeg has the option of setting various resolutions, frames per second rate and options to what type of video file will be exported. It also has the feature to use Apple's Pencil to allow quick drawing. The method of using Callipeg is mostly hand gesture based so each new frame can be made with a swipe of a finger or by using an option to create a new frame. The app also has onion skin option so previous and next frames can be seen to ensure the animation is fluid and consistent.

 The second app, Storyboard, as the name implies, is another simple storyboarding app. Instead of full fledge animation app, this app only puts very important key frames and establishes how the animation would flow, what theme it will have and point out key things such dialogs, movements or sound effects in a particular animation scene. The process of doing storyboarding is basically adding keyframes like any animation program but only drawing important aspects of the frames. Dialogs and sound effects captions can be added in the frame to know exactly what will be played at that moment.

 One last software that I would be using is Wondershare Filmora, a video editing software to compile all of my animations into one 2-3 minute long final project. This software also has transition effects as well adding multiple videos at once to show more content on the same screen. I will be using to attach all of the animations all of the required copyright free sound effects and adjusting the animations to make sure everything works cohesively.

Research for Animation

 Animation does not require much materials to get started. Traditionally, old style animation requires many sheets of papers, pencils and colours to set the frame. Artists would have to flip through sheets by hand to check how the animation flows. Once that is done, the sheets are then scanned and worked out by the computer to stitch all the frames together to make one final animation.

 The animation would then be aired via television or in cinemas in the case of older tradition style shows. But current animation can all be done digitally using a single drawing device and computer. And by sharing through the internet, there is no limit on to how long an animation can be. Technology has mostly replaced the methods of animating from 30 to 40 years ago, however some traditional or 'authentic' style animations are still being done today.