This independent project was an interesting one. I say that because of how experimental it was. Even though i've played around with animation before, (mostly stop-motion) I still haven't really committed to a big animation project. At first my Idea was to do a stop-motion animation with action figures. Even though It would be a big project, I have done it in the past so I figured it would be no big deal. I was in the planning process when I realized that I couldn’t do it, because of the logistics in bringing expensive equipment (cameras, lighting, computer, etc.) into school and leaving it in the same space everyday, as even the slightest bump from a student would mess up months of work. So, I was not really sure what to do when my art teacher Mr. Gray encouraged me to try 2D hand drawn animation.
So, I went into the project with little experience, and just tried it out. I wanted to do something simple, so I just decided on a stick figure parkour sequence, that way I would be just drawing tons of stickmen. Well this worked out well for the first 2 weeks, and I was on track. The problem was that I was focusing too much on making it perfect, and not finishing it. This led to a very smooth first 4 seconds of animation. About halfway through my time, I realized I was far behind schedule, and this only further fueled my artistic burnout. I cut the original plan for 20 seconds of animation in half, with my goal being to make 10 seconds, which would end at just around the first scene. I also went at it with a different mindset, and that is to finish the entire scene, and then go in after and do the in betweens, and make it more smooth. With about a week left of time, I managed to do the same amount of animation I had done in nearly 6 weeks. It is on my website, uploaded and done, for the marking and projects sake. Although, as it is only 9 or 10 seconds of animation, and Mr. Gray won’t be showing off my art on the school page for a few weeks, I have decided to continue animating onto it. For the record, it is handed in, although, because of how short and in my opinion mediocre it is, I will be working on it in my free time to hopefully show off a piece I am proud of. In the end, it was a great learning experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, once I got the hang of it. I think animation is my favorite medium now, and I will continue to improve in the future.
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So, this is the halfway point for our independent project. Am I a little worried?, yes. Although I’ll still finish it all time. It took a bit of time to learn the program and the pacing, so I am behind schedule, but I've gotten going and am going to produce a lot faster in the next few weeks.
(Not) surprisingly, animating stick figures is quite simple and easy. For me, the hardest part is finding the right reference. Because I am not animating everything from my head, I need some basic movement reference in the form of pictures or preferably videos. To find the perfect reference is often a challenge although I usually end up finding one that is satisfactory. I have created the first few parts in the storyboard and have done the inbetweens for them. This has created very smooth animation for the one part but I am far from done. Going forward, I am going to finish the keyframes for the entire sequence and then do the in betweens after. That way I will have a more finished product done even if I run out of time. The only other difficulty that I am coming across is inking problems. As you can see in the images below, some stickfigure frames are drawn alright but have ink quality problems. (The lines are very shaky and jagged, not very smooth or “confident”,) And this is showing me that it may take longer to draw each frame than initially planned. Although, as the project progresses I get better and better at making smooth confident strokes. In conclusion I am behind during this halfway point of the project. Although, I am planning to spend more hours a day working on it, and put more focus and effort into it for the upcoming weeks. After the infographic research project, we are starting a new independent project to complete in the next 2 months. Us VAM students get to pick a medium, (drawing, painting, photography, digital, etc.) and do a project with it. Some examples of projects students did in the past are; writing and illustrating a children's book, illustrating a comic or graphic novel, making a series of paintings, a series of photographs, and making pastel drawings. The one rule is that it must be a “series”, whether that be in a book, an animation, or just as a series. In the beginning of May we will have an art show, showcasing all of our projects.
At first I was going to buy a few highly articulated professional action figures, and do a stop motion movie. Although, I realized very quickly that wasn’t going to work. This was because of how I would need to set up a miniature set on a table with the action figures. This would include all of the props, lights, figures, and a camera. Since it is very crucial that there are few variables in stop motion, it would be a challenge to shoot this at school. For one, I would have to find an isolated area with no natural light or fluorescent lights, otherwise the lighting in the movie would be constantly flickering. On the other hand, if any of the many students who are in the room during the day happened to bump the camera or the set, I would have to completely re shoot the scene, which would already be very tedious. So of course, this idea was a no-go. I knew that in the end, if I couldn’t think of a better idea, I could simply do a photography series. I know and am comfortable with photography and it was a good idea to fall back on. Although, at the beginning of the year, I told myself I was going to step out of my comfort zone a little, and I think this was the perfect opportunity to do it. So, the other idea that I was juggling around is the idea to do a hand drawn animation clip. I call this a clip because in two months I won’t have time to do even a short film. Most animations are done by big triple A studios with hundreds of people, and they still take years. This is because, like I mentioned earlier, animation is tedious. So, I will only be doing a 30 second animation. Even though I have been interested in animation for about 6 years, I have only really done a few projects with it, and don’t have much experience. I take inspiration for my animation from Youtubers, anime, and other forms of art. I find that I may be really passionate about it. The only problem is that I have little experience in it, so it may take a while. This is why I am planning to stick with a simple “plot” and am probably going to base it off of a word or emotion. During the first week of “production” I am going to start by gathering my ideas and making a storyboard as fast as possible, so I can get started. I have a feeling that I am going to be investing a lot of time even away from school, to complete this project. I have done an estimate, and for a 30 second animation at 24 frames per second, I should have about 700 drawings to do. This is on the high end, because I want the focus to be the flashy animation or “sakuga”, as they say in Japan. In conclusion, I am really excited for this project and look forward to seeing what I can produce. Even though I don’t have as much experience as others, I have high standards for myself, and am hoping I can pull it off. Hello everyone! This is a new blog entry for some new goals in this new semester. Last semester I set two goals. One, was to make abstract paintings every week for a total of 20 paintings. The other goal was to meditate everyday. To be honest I made 4 paintings, and meditated less frequently although still consistently. Even though I didn’t make my full goal, I still managed to get better at abstract painting, and I seem to be a lot more focused which I think is due to meditation. For the new semester I am doing two SMART goals. One is for english language arts, and the other is for visual arts.
The first goal is for visual arts. Last semester I worked on abstract art, and while that was useful, I think that other areas of artistic study would be more beneficial to me. One area I have been struggling with is anatomy and characters. In the new semester there will be an independent project which is going to take up many months of work starting in March. Needless to say this is a big project and my skills are not where I would like them to be while doing a project like this. Therefore I am going to be able to draw properly designed characters and people much faster than I can right now. I will do this by doing figure drawings and practising anatomy every day. During the next months of the year I will also do a character drawing course when I have free time. By mid June I will be able to sketch quick anatomy and draw characters more effortlessly. The second goal is for English language arts. I have never tried to intentionally get better at writing or language arts, so this is new to me. Once again, I have an independent project coming up, and I need to be prepared to make the best art possible at this time. Although art isn’t just technical skills, It is also emotion and storytelling. Therefore I can’t do good in the project without proper knowledge of storytelling, character development, scripting, etc. This is why I am aiming to become well versed in worldbuilding, character development, and proper structure during the next few months. To do this, I am going to read and study different books and films, as well as realize their techniques to improve my writing and storytelling skills. I am also going to work on the short story I wrote earlier this year and try to improve it as much as possible. In conclusion, come June, I will be able to write short stories with proper structure as well as do better worldbuilding and character development for my art. I will achieve this by studying film and literature (as well as other forms) and applying techniques to my own work. In the visual arts category, I am aiming to be able to draw diverse characters to include in stories, and understand basic anatomy by June. I will do this by practicing anatomy every night, and doing a character drawing course. Let me start this by saying that artists definitely deserve credit. The amount of effort and time many artists put into their work, for it to be completely ripped off. This, in my opinion, is definitely not fair. Although, think about art for a second. What really is art? Well, in my opinion, art is a form of expression, specifically an expression of peoples experiences, and their interpretation of the world. So with saying that, I don’t necessarily believe that ideas or concepts are all unoriginal, or that they were all “copied”, but I do think that the vast majority of them have gained inspiration from the ones that came before them. Think about the atomic model. If you aren’t aware, the atomic model is the scientific theory that everything is made up of tiny particles called “atoms”. The theory of what these atoms look like, has changed drastically over history. Each model builds off the one before it, and the sharing and transfer of ideas is absolutely vital to this theory. So let’s say that someone “copyrights” their atomic model. Now, no one is allowed to use any of the ideas copyrighted in their atomic model, and this limits the possibilities of what we are then able to accomplish. Think about where we would be now if that happened in the past. Although, I do understand that it is almost foolish to compare art to scientific theories, as they are entirely different, but this works as an example. Furthermore, throughout history, ideas and culture have evolved because of inspiration. And now, because of our capitalist driven society, we are told that ideas can be owned, and are now more valuable than gold. I think personally that this is preposterous, and is only serving those who have enough “power” to make personal gain. As made clear in the documentary: RiP!: A Remix Manifesto, Disney is a prime example of this. In some of Walt Disney's earlier successful works, such as Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and several others, it is evident that these stories are not original and are basically retellings of old stories. Although, when even as little as Mickey Mouse is painted on a wall at a daycare, Disney nearly has a heart attack and often goes on the offence to defend their “copyrighted” ideas. This further shows my belief that copyright may have started to credit the original artists, but has turned into a greedy business. See, as humans, we are constantly evolving and adapting. And with that is the evolution of ideas, culture, beliefs, and our complete worldview. I have another great example that shows how the evolution of art goes. It is called Artbreeder. Artbreeder.com is one of my greatest inspirations as an artist, and it definitely showcases how art evolves, using artificial intelligence. Artbreeder works with a massive online database of images and art, uploaded by users. You basically scroll through this database, pick two “parents” (two pieces of art) and it uses artificial intelligence to create the “child” aka a combination of the two parents. You can alter the “genetics” settings, to alter the effects of each parent, and even use different filters. Then, you can pick your favorite one, and add it to your profile. From there, other users can use your photo, combine it with another, and the chain goes on. My favorite part of the program is how you can click on the photo, and see the “family tree” of where this piece came from, and see the usually long list of photos coming before it, in it’s lineage. Furthermore, I think this is almost exactly how art in the real world works, except in a more loosely based method. As you can probably tell by now I am a “copyleft”. I am a copyleft because I don’t believe that you can own ideas. Sure, if someone deliberately takes your Idea and uses it to make personal profit, I don’t think that this is fair. Although, I think that it is your responsibility to bring positive ideas to society, and I don’t think that you should make these ideas unusable by society. In earlier times, they used to sing songs. Now, you have to listen to them. I believe that there is an interesting relationship between media consumption, and media production. Now with advancing technology, more and more people are able to create what you would call media. And now, the so called consumers, are also the producers, so where is the line drawn? Are people who sample songs in their songs consumers? Or are they producers? I think that if everyone makes songs, and they take samples from other songs, then they are consumers, but also producers. So we have this weird shift and I think in the near future, we won’t have these few media giants deciding everything. At least I would like to hope, with services like Youtube, we can give the power to the people. In conclusion, I believe that copying and especially inspiration is definitely an integral part of visual art, and I think that any good artist would agree. If you are an artist, remember when you were a beginner. Did you just invent a completely different style and culture every time you made a piece? No, you most likely did not. In fact, I think that as a beginner artist, it is vital to take inspiration from other works before you, and even remix their art into yours, whether consciously or unconsciously. I think that artists should be able to use the images of other artists freely in order for them and art in general to evolve. Although, I don’t think it is okay for people and especially companies to take images with the intention of making independent profit.
What do I want to accomplish? What is my goal? These are questions I often find myself asking. Although the truth is, I don’t share the same or even similar goals with the majority of teens. In fact, one may question me or my goals because of how bizarre they may be at times. Are they even goals? Recently, they have not been material. This is why it was difficult for me to organize them and make sure to pick one that wasn’t too “out there”. Our assignment was to use the SMART process and method in achieving our goals. We were instructed to pick one academy goal, and one “personal”, both to be completed by January 31st. A problem then arises with that though, as my personal goals are very personal to me and I don’t feel comfortable sharing them, or people may label me as “crazy”. So, nevertheless, I have decided to pick an academy goal, and a “semi-personal” goal. The academy goal was easy, because as I mentioned earlier, it is physical. My personal goal on the other hand, was quite difficult. Also, My academy goal and my “personal” goal go hand in hand, as I am using each of them to inspire me to complete the other task.
See I have been experimenting lately with my visual art. Typically I enjoy doing character and anime drawing, or sometimes landscape painting. Although lately, I have been surprisingly interested in abstract and expression style art. So, I have decided that every other week I will be doing an abstract painting on how I feel. The weeks in between will be the same except for I get to pick which medium I use each week. I will be doing the painting and art every Friday. My goal is to get better at expressing myself through visual art, and getting better at noticing and reflecting on my feelings, and their triggers. I really do think this will help me as an artist, as well as on a personal level. For my personal goal, I have chosen something that may look vague. See, on a personal level, as I mentioned earlier, my goals are not material. Also, I don’t have many goals that are an “achievement”. I prefer to not look at the end result as much as I look at the process, or the journey. Meaning my goal is not the end result, as much as it is just doing the techniques, habits, and change in lifestyle, and observe what the end result is. That is the goal. So, to be more specific, I want to expand my awareness. I want to become more aware of inside. I want to observe my thoughts, and patterns, as well as eventually break free of them. Also, I want to change perspective and view the world in a neutral, less biased way. So, to get better at observing my thoughts, emotions, and expand my awareness, I am going to practise a few methods and techniques. The first and foremost being I am. This might sound weird, but it is a technique that I have come across. It is made to essentially make it easier for me to observe myself and therefore be able to proact, instead of being the “victim” and reacting all of the time. You do a guided meditation every morning and focus on I am. Nothing else but that feeling that you exist. Really as humans that is the only thing we know for certain, that we exist. Therefore it is the best way to quiet the mind and become the observer. The next technique is kundalini yoga. Every Sunday I will be doing a form of yoga with my siblings that will also aid me with this. It is relatively easy so I need not worry about procrastination or putting it off because it is too much of a “production”. The last thing I will be doing is dream journaling. This has proved to be helpful to me in the past as I dream every single night. It has helped me learn more about myself because dreams are a sort of story your mind creates. If you can learn the moral of the story, you can apply them to your life as a benefit. In conclusion, both goals will help each other because my meditation will help me recognize emotions and the art will help me express them. Inspiration will feed off of each other. Both will help me along my road as an artist and as a person. So thank you. I appreciate you reading this far. Also, I am interested to see what I may or may not be able to observe in myself as well as in my art. |
AuthorTyler Vincent is a mainly visual artist that does character and story illustrations, as well as experiments with Landscape and portrait painting. Archives
May 2021
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