Music mapping

Music mapping is a term I have invented to describe my process of understanding my music properly from a timing perspective and instrumental breakdown. 

Seen below is a drawing of the music firstly as a block sound and then as individual instruments. This showed me what I needed to know for how many possible shapes or colours I would need in my storyboard. 

After doing this, due to the amount of detail in the melody and wanting to make the After Effects process as quick and painless as possible I created a timing sheet so that I know where everything is supposed to go before starting my animation. I think this will help me because I won't need to rearrange things once I start, it also gives me a rough idea of how many key drawings/layers I need (note, not key frames). It looks complicated but there is method to my madness.

Moving forward

After doing the workshops I have decided that I am comfortable with doing things digitally rather than stop motion or illustration so this is the method I will use for my animation.

After Effects - Workshop 4

In this workshop we worked with green screening combined with the layering of techniques from the previous session.

                    

I thought this was quite a quick and easy process to do and I like the outcome with the exception of the light movement. We created a 'null object' which my light would follow and I made my area too big. Other than that I think it works fine and I am now considering including a light following an object in my animation.

                      

The piece I have created here was just to show that I could remove the back ground on a piece so I started off with a green background and then completely took it away. I don't like doing this process and I didn't enjoy the process of stop motion I used for the pennies.

After Effects - Workshop 3

In this workshop we used a lot of techniques such as cameras, lights and adding text to an image to create a 3D effect animation. This process is called 2D to 3D animation. Below is what I produced in the workshop.

                      

I really like how this works and I'm proud of the camera work with the focusing. After doing this I went home to try and create another one myself, after forgetting how to do a couple of things I tried to produce a similar image.

                     

With this animation is was hard to get the camera focusing just right because the cartoon style made it hard to see which parts of the image were in sharp focus and which were blurred. It isn't as good at the Spiderman animation but I still managed to get the processes in there which is the more important thing.

Using the camera and lights was hard and confusing at first but now it has become something that I surprisingly comfortable with, this gives me confidence to maybe use a light or camera technique in my project.

Stop Motion Animation 2

After doing my first set of experiments I went back and did some more work on it to try out different frame rates.

                      

This was my second attempt at my Snake animation. As I said previously I wanted it to run slower because I wanted it to be more jerky like the original game I was inspired by. I think I achieved this by changing the frame rate to 6fps instead of the previous 12fps and I think it works a bit better.

                       

In my previous experiments I liked Build and Spiral so here I have combined the two at 8fps. I like the way it looks and how changing the colours which layered on top of each other makes it obvious what's happening.

I still think it would be possible to use something like this for my project idea and I will most likely do further experiments with stop motion with my music.

Stop Motion Animation Workshop

In this workshop we use the application I Can Animate and a rostrum camera set up to take individual images which became frames in a 12fps animation. I liked this process and thought it was easy to do - it was a lot easier than when I used it for my cell animation using my iPad. We used lego blocks in our animations because it was fixed form that was easy to work with.

                   
                                               

This was the first thing I produced. I started with the yellow and then I thought I'd make a sort of gradient to add interest by adding the red, I continued doing this until the end. I think it worked well but I got a little confused with which way my slide was going.

                    
                                                     

After the workshop I made more lego animations, this being the first. I tried to experiment with a swirl pattern which was difficult to pull off with squares but I like the speed which it runs at.

                     
                                                           

This was inspired by the old game Snake. I think this runs too fast and I would have liked it to have had that old game feel, it might have worked better if I'd used a lower frame rate such as 8 or even 6 so get the effect of little breaks between movements.

                     

A few other people in the group were doing different things to me, one thing they were doing was building upwards towards the camera so I decided to try it myself. I thought it would have ran slower than this but I still like it's speed however, I don't think it has nearly enough of an effect as if it was shot from the side and mot above.

                       

This was my final creation of the day inspired by volume bars, I really like this, I think the fast speed closely mimics the volume bars on hifi systems. I think this is possibly my favourite thing I made.

I can imagine all of the above clips (apart from Snake) running in sync with music to visually demonstrate the rhythm.

After Effects - Workshop 1

In the After Effects workshop we were taught how to use the functions in the program including how to set up compositions, selecting layers and scaling of images. Eventually we got into rotating too. However, before doing this we were taught about pixels on Photoshop and then we edited out image, the Batman logo in Photoshop before opening the file in After Effects. Below is the clip which I produced.

                 

After the workshop I went back to After Effects and made another logo animation.

                 

For both of these I used the same process as before with separating the logo elements and making them move. I like the Mastercard one more than the Batman one because it runs a bit better and uses both rotation and positioning on the page to manipulate it. 

I think these simple movements are definitely something which I can transfer into my project.

Storyboard

I decided to use idea 1 for my final storyboard because there is a lot of experimentation I could do with it and more things happen in this idea than in the simpler idea 2. I think when this is animated it will look good when in sync with my music.

New ideas

Way back at the start of the project we were asked to come up with words about how we felt about the music etc, I created a bigger list but never narrowed it down to the required 3. My 3 words are: bass,  sway and repeat. 

I think the section of the song that I have chosen suits a rhythmic abstraction piece. 

Idea 1

This is my first idea, here I have the bassline represented by rectangles which would run along the bottom of the screen for as long as that sound is present and then circles, for the melody, to contrast that which come out at different points and sizes in the area and stay for the short amount of time the sound is present. I think this is a good idea albeit simple but I think simple is good if it can be done well.

Idea 2

For this idea I came up with this "onion skin" design which has the same principle as idea 1. The rings apear when sound is present and not when sound isn't. Each ring would represent a bass or melody sound. I think this is my simplest idea and I'm not sure how it would look, it may look quite nice with the design but dull at the same time due to lack of movement.

Idea 3

My final idea is the most complicated of the three. Unlike the others which can be created in different ways this would be digital only. I was inspired by things I saw but having not seen the computer software yet I may be putting all my eggs in one basket. The idea works in the same way as the other two where a shape represents a sound, here the ribbons/wavy shape/wisp represents the bass and the puffs of smoke represent the melody. I do like the idea but it's a gamble and a challenge.

Sound edit

Before continuing into my storyboarding stage I thought I would edit down my track so that I only wrote an animation specifically for my chosen part and not one that could just fit anywhere.
Below is the sound clip I will be using.

                    
                                                   

Direction

I am now happily at the stage where I need to decide what I'm doing. After looking at all the inspirational material I decided not to look any further into my first idea as it is no where near as strong as the ideas which have no filtered through. 

I was captivated by the rhythm based pieces, although I did like some of the abstract pieces I find it hard to think in that way but I think I'm going to attempt to use rhythm as a focus and try and put a little bit of abstraction in there. I'm still not sure on which method to use; stop motion or illustration but I feel like that can be decided after I have storyboarded my final idea because then I wil move my process into experimentation to see which works best and gives the right feel.

Inspirations 3 - Other inspirations

Here I am looking at animations which I find inspiring but are not directly related to music but are still useful for this project.

I saw this which inspired me because of the abstract wisps instead of actual shapes, again as I've said previously this could be an approach I could take.

I have chosen to show this clip because I think it is a good demonstration of representation.

                                            

As I have previously touched on stop motion animation I thought I'd include a few bits, I really like stop motion animation I think it is a very creative process and you have a lot of freedom with it. I think it's actually here that I realise that this project isn't so daunting and that really it's all about creation, the hard bit only comes in matching music but sometimes things don't match but it still works.

 

I actually found Pes a long time ago before we were shown it in this module, I love their work I think it is pretty amazing how they create the things they do and it just shows exactly what can be done. In this I like how they take recognisable objects and change them.

I really like this animation too and it shows that sometimes there are no limits (although for my project there is) but it shows how things like stop motion don't just have to apear on a 2D surface but can also be 3D.

This sort of stop motion video is more with in my reach but I still like this, a lot happens and it is still smooth. You could imagine a little thing like this being put to some music and creating a rhythmical drawing sequence.

Inspirations 2 - Abstraction based pieces

Below are a selection of abstraction based animations to music which I enjoyed and think could help me develop a better idea for my project.

In this video a really like how sounds are represented in this almost sporadic fashion along with this very sporadic track/array of sounds. I think this may be of some help to me if I was attempting an extreme abstraction piece.

This animation uses an approach i haven't yet looked at which is stop motion animation I like what you can do with stop motion and although this has no sound i still like it as a smooth piece of work. this could be another possibility for me instead of illustration.

                       
                                                         

I think this is amazing but unfortunately out of my reach I think but I really like how the shape is deconstructed and reconstructed, I think it is a real spectacle and it fits well with the music. I only wish I could be this good.

                

This is different to anything else I've looked at, I like the shape morphing and how the movements fit well with the music but the shape itself has no relation to the music.

                                  

I think this is of inspiration to me because again it is different to other things I have looked at and I think it is even more abstract because there is no definitive shape used. I could use line, or like here smoke, to represent different sounds as a good alternative to shape.

Inspirations 1 - Rhythm based pieces

Below are a selection of rhythm based animations to music which I enjoyed and think could help me develop a better idea for my project.

I have chosen this video because I like how the shapes are in rhythm and always apear in the same place, I still think it is abstract even without the movement of shapes and I particularly like the use of the bars and circles to contrast.

I think this is quite fantastic, I think it is almost an alternative view of a music score. I would be possible for me to do something like this as my track in the most part has a clear rhythm.

I like this because it is hand drawn cell animation which of course I have done and it is very smooth. Content wise I like the movement and how the dots represent the striking high pitched sound in the song.

                            

Here I like the relationship between shapes and how the beat is picked out. In some parts of it I like the triangles and use of circles too to contrast the huge usage of squares. I do think there is a lot going on though.

                     
                                           

I really like this video because of all the different elements and colour, this might work with my track with it having multiple instruments at different speeds, a colour could represent each one.

Methods of portrail

There are many different ways I could go about my animation so I need to start thinking about which direction I'd like to go in so that I look for inspiration for animations created in that way.

Possible methods:

(by methods I mean ways of representation not processes such as cell animation) 

shapes

typography

colours

contrast: light/dark

layering of images

illustration

paper

clay

shadows

art movement

Effects:

camera angles/zooms

flashing/flickering

For this song I don't think that typography is suitable unless I created a shape out of letters but I think with the abstract ideas we're aiming for it is too complicated and adds an unnecessary element to the simplicity of shapes. I don't think I would use clay either as although it would be nice to have a Wallace and Gromit feel it would take too long in the given time and again add too many complications.  

After doing the cell animation i do quite like that approach although it can be stressful but that could fit in with the timeframe I have. 

Shapes and colours are an obvious must have for creating a visual but the selection of those is important. I also think some kind of contrast would work well due to the darker nature of the song, it could compliment it or emphasise it.

I think my direction is very open but there is a high likelyhood that I will choose illustration. I will look at inspiration to see what I can get from that and if my mind is changed afterwards. 

At the moment I think I prefer the idea of a more "hands on" approach having never used After effects before I think things like lights and cameras will purely depend on my grasping of the software so I'm aiming for something simple with a good execution rather than relying on my digital skills.

Cell animation

During this workshop we had to take two logos and create an animation with them to last 12 seconds at 12fps (frames per second).

These were the two logos we decided to work with in our group, we chose these because they were reasonably simple and we quickly decided on an idea of what to do with them.

These were out idea sketches of what we wanted to happen before we made our storyboard. We decided that the arrow was going to come down a break shapes up to create a face (character) and then our face was going to do something such as blinking.

On our storyboard we kept it simple with each action taking 1 second (12 frames) to complete. There would be a zoom into the face before blinking and eye movements before beginning to coe to a close with the face falling apart and ending on the same blank screen we started with. We did this to make it rounded with a real beginning, middle and end, just like any narrative. 

This video was a 12 frame test to check the alignment when using the iPad app I Can Animate. After deciding that is was working well I continued to create the full 12 seconds (below).

First idea

This post is about my first idea, feedback on that in a tutorial and my response to that feedback.

I liked the idea of a dream sequence and using the pace ideas (previous post) as a base and using the objects to represent them.

I came up with the idea of having a fisherman on a boat who falls asleep and dreams (in a surrealist manner) about his surroundings and using the dark feel of the song to create a tragedy of his boat sinking. This would then end with a cliff-hanger ending which would be a fade out to represent waking up but the viewer doesn't see an awakening it is just assumed. Below is a rough sketch of this.

After putting my idea across I was told that it was very strong and I shouldn't use a character (even though focus wasn't on him) instead I should try and bring the audience into the dream by making them part of it instead of being an onlooker. I sketched out my idea again using the idea of the dream being the audience's dream. personally I don't think it is strong but i I do think it creates more tention/suspense and emotion in the viewer.

Initial thoughts

While listening to the song (below) I wrote down ideas as they came to me and here I have organised them into groups that make a little more sense.

Mood: slow, dark, melancholy, level, drama

Pace: gliding, floating, rocking, sway, dream

Objects: sky, boats, birds, pendulums, music scores, metronomes, sea, fish

Drama: falling, sinking, chase, death, darkness, change

Style: surreal, dream, hallucinations, subconscious, abstraction, drugs, alcohol (effects on the body)

Slow speed could allow for for freedom

Key ideas: away from the norm, representation, symbolism

Print to pixel

For this project I have been given the track "Organic" by Philip Glass. I'm not sure what to make of it yet but my first thought is that this will be a challenge as the song is quite slow with no real climax so I think it will be difficult to choose a section to work with.

I hope that through my coming research I can develop a solid idea to accompany the song with the idea being abstraction.