Make Em Laugh Progress

This week I have been working on getting key frames blocked in in other shots of my animation. The third shot of my animation also has a walk cycle in it and after doing this in the shot before I felt alot more comfortable doing it and I think it looked alot better than in the last shot where I had problems keeping the size of the character consistent using frame by frame animation. The next shot was a bit more complex with the date sliding down a rope and jumping off onto the floor. I decided to tween the rope movement to save time but to try and draw him doing a front flip off the rope to make the scene more visually interesting. I was really happy with the final bounce off the rope and tried to use my knowledge of squash and stretch and timing to make it look as good as possible. If I have time I would like to make the part where he slides down the rope more interesting by making him twirl around it or by making the rope sway, because at the minute I think it looks way too still and static compared to the energetic bounce he does at the end.
For the next shot where the date nearly gets ran over by a trolley, I have began by colouring over a picture of a trolley on photoshop which I imported into animate. I then made the trolley into a symbol and moved the rotation of the wheels so it appears as if they are moving, and then tweened the trolley to move across the stage so the date can jump out of its way. I am really pleased with how the trolley looks especially with the wheel moving. I also added in key frames of the date diving out of the way, trying to focus on the timing of the jump and the anticipation the date goes through before he jumps out of the way.

Make Em Laugh- Backgrounds

Before I began animating I designed the backgrounds below. When thinking about the setting for the 'Blind Date' supermarket I tried to replicate a fruit and vegetable section from one of the supermarkets in my home town. I really like the design I came up with but I think if given more time I would have like to add more detail and make it look more alive and busy and maybe add people to it to make it feel more real. I drew out the backgrounds on paper first and then carefully went over them with fine liner before scanning them in and colouring them on photoshop. I enjoyed exploring the different brush tools and opacitys until I found the one below which I think worked well for the texture of the wood and floor, and i also used different smudge tools and the mixing brush to try and add detail to the fruit which I think worked quite well. I am interested in doing background art for further modules and group projects so I really enjoyed designing these and thinking about the different shots that would be in my animation. I decided to go with a teal coloured background because I think it suits the setting of the supermarket well. I added a glow to the door in one of the shots because I wanted to clearly show that that is the dates final destination and I really like the effect its given the background and think it works well with the perspective.

Make Em Laugh progress

This week I began animating properly starting with a simple zoom of one of my backgrounds as an establishing shot to depict where the animation is set. I am using Adobe Animate over Photoshop as I find it easier to understand. I was really scared of beginning to animate because I have never animated digitally before and I was afraid of the program, so I think I put it off a bit out of fear. However, when I got used to the controls I found it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be.
I used tweens over frame by frame to show the date jumping out of the box in the second shot and then drew a few key frames of him walking over to begin his escape. If I have time I would like to change the tweens to frame by frame because I dont like how robotic and unnatural it looks, but I really like the frame by frame walk cycle I did. Because I had never done a walk cycle before I had to look up a lot of tutorials on youtube to help. I struggled a bit with this because my dates legs are so small and I didnt know how much they should bend while still looking natural, but after experimenting a bit a making them bend less I am quite pleased with the result. Below is the video I found really helpful in trying to get this right.

Blind Date storyboard

I have decided the story for my 'Make Em Laugh' animation will be the endeavour of a blind date -the fruit- to escape the supermarket where he is imprisoned. I have drawn out a loose storyboard below. The story begins with a wide shot of the supermarket fruit and veg section to establish the scene, and will show the dates journey to try and escape; he punches his way out of the box and heroically slides down a rope, dodging trollies as he tries to find his way out. Eventually he gets to the door and gazes out in amazement before the automatic doors chop him in half. Hopefully this last shot of the animation will cement the 'funny' side of the animation if the idea of the 'blind date' pun doesnt.

Make Em Laugh- Blind Date ideas

I have decided my theme for this brief will be under the theme of 'Blind date,' however I want to put a twist on it by using a date-as in the fruit- that is blind. I have thought of a few scenarios that the blind dates could be put into; such as perhaps a tomato or some other type of fruit is going on a blind date, only to turn up and find that his blind date was a blind date the whole time. I liked this idea but thought it might be hard for people to understand what the date actually was. I also thought maybe just a montage of a hoard of blind dates fumbling around and trying to go about life would be quite funny and would appeal to that random sort of humour that is popular with teenagers and young adults.
My other idea was the date is trying to escape from the supermarket he is imprisoned in- with great difficulty, and perhaps a grape guide dog. I think i like this idea the most and it would be the most fun to work on, and i think i could make use of sound by perhaps putting mission impossible music or the great escape music to make it funnier.

The Golden Age

The Golden Age Of Animation is a period in animation history that is generally agreed to have begun on November 18th, 1928, with the release of Steamboat Willie, and cemented with Fleischer's, Warner's and MGM's rise to prominence in the years following. Feature length animation also began during this period, most notably with Walt Disney's first films: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. For many people animation begins and ends with Disney films. Many of the most iconic animated stars were born in this period, such as Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, Woody the Woodpecker etc. 

Felix the Cat and Out of the Inkwell were the only animated series of prominence prior to 1928. 
In 1937, Disney's innovative first full length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released to critical acclaim and worldwide success. In order to expand and meet the expectations of his audience, Walt increased the size of his studio with the profits from the film. 
By 1932 Walt Disney had realized the success of animated films depended upon telling emotionally gripping stories that would grab the audience.This realization led to an important innovation around 1932 and 1933: a "story department," separate from the animators, with storyboard artists who would be dedicated to working on a "story development" phase of the production process. In turn, Disney's continued emphasis on story development and characterization resulted in another hit in 1933: Three Little Pigs, which is seen as the first cartoon in which multiple characters displayed unique, individual personalities and is still considered to be the most successful animated short of all time, and also featured the hit song that became the anthem in fighting the Great Depression: "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf". After the success of Snow White Disney went on to produce Pinocchio in 1940. It was considered a stunning achievement both technically and artistically, costing twice as much as Snow White, but because of World War II's affect on foreign release market, it was not financially successful.

History of Animation 2

A number of pioneers began creating animated shorts in the early 20th century, for example 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces' by newspaper cartoonist J. Stuart Blackton in 1906 and 1914’s Gertie the Dinosaur by Winsor McCay. The film features a scene where McCay walks behind the projection screen and a view of him appears on the screen showing him getting on the cartoon dinosaur's back and riding out of frame. This scene made Gertie the Dinosaur the first film to combine live action footage with hand drawn animation.

The 1930's saw the introduction of the iconic Betty Boop, first appearing as a poodle in 'Dizzy Dishes' created by Max Fleischer, before later transforming into a human and becoming a sex symbol. She was a caricature of a Jazz Age flapper, based off singer Helen Kane. The 1930's also saw the first animated appearances of Popeye the sailor, again produced by Max and Dave Fleoscher who adapted the originally comic book character into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures

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Early Animation

Animation is a much older art form that most people probably know. Cave art that had been created in the Paleolithic age is thought to be the world's first attempt at producing a moving picture. There have been many cave paintings across France where animals appear to have multiple limbs, heads and tails — but, according to archaeologist Marc Azéma of the University of Toulouse–Le Mirail, who has spent over 20 years studying the phenomenon, the paintings are actually primitive animations. When viewed under the unsteady light of flickering flames, the images can appear to move.

The ingenuity of our Stone Age ancestors isn't limited to cave walls, either. Although the thaumatrope (a disc or card with a different image on each side that is threaded on a string and is then spun to blur the images into one) wasn't technically invented until 1824, French artist Florent Rivère found that Paleolithic people used similar objects; bone discs with different images on each side which were previously thought to be buttons, but when threaded on strings and spun, animated images could be seen. Below is a video demonstrating how the paintings would have appeared to move; 

There are also examples of how ancient egyptians gave the illusion of movement in their cave paintings, sequences of images that portray different scenes that when put together tell a story;

Comedic Genres

• Alternative comedy; Differs from traditional punchline jokes andvfeatures many other forms of comedy such as observation, satire, surrealism, slapstick and improvisation. 
• Anecdotal comedy; many stand up comedians make use of this genre, telling personal stories that may be embellished. I think this would be too specific to do an animation based on.
• Black comedy; Mature comedy that focuses on serious topics like death, terrorism, war etc. Can be quite offensive but I enjoy it when explored in relation to the horror movie genre.

• Blue comedy; sexual in nature, can also feature sexism, homophobia and racism.
• Character comedy; when a comedian invents a persona that is usually based around stereotypes, for example Catherine Tate or Mr.Bean
• Cringe comedy; comedy that can include inappropriate actions or words, can be found mostly in sitcoms like the office
• Deadpan; when the comedian doesn't change their expression or tone of voice while telling jokes
• Improvisational; such as 'Mock the Week' or 'Curb your Enthusiasm'
• Parody; an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect. 

• Musical Comedy; examples such as Bo Burnham or Tim Minchin
• Spoof; The recreating of a book, film or play for humor, such as 'A Very Potter Musical'
• Sitcom; scripted television series such as Friends or Blackadder

• Satire; the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
• Slapstick; comedy based on deliberately clumsy actions and humorously embarrassing events.

Humour Research: Different audiences

For our new process and production brief 'Make em' laugh' we have been given 6 themes;

• First Contact: alien encounters, coming to earth,sloths first meeting, baby being born; dogs meeting eachother
• A Birthday to Remember:Jesus's birthday, everyone forgets someones birthday
• The Restaurant; hare in soup, waiter keeps spilling things
• A Cunning Plan
• Blind Date; dates that are blind, blind person trying to mark off a date,
• Neighbours;

I have listed some of my ideas for each theme above. We have also been asked to do some research into which audience we are aiming to amuse and different types of humour. The three audiences I have identified are;

• Children; I think this audience could be quite restrictive as you would have to be careful not to include any violence or sexual references and to keep the joke relatively simple and easy to understand. The colours would have to be very bright and appealing and the style quite cartoonish. I remember loving 'The Pink Panther' cartoon as a child. 
• Teenagers/Young Adults; this is probably the type of humour I would laugh at the most; in recent years it seems to be mostly self depreceating and random humour, and the new internet sensation of 'memes.' I think pun related humour, slapstick and witty jokes are also quite common for this age group. Some popular animation that alot of people my age seem to find funny is asdf movies on youtube, the humour in these videos is very random and simple. This would probably be the best genre for me to construct an animation around as its the one I can relate to the most.

• Adult humour; I think adults appreciate sarcasm and satire a lot as well as humour related to specific interests or references. Their humour is probably alot more mature that what a childs or teens would be.

Visual Language Evaluation

Evaluation (See guidance below for more information)
You are required to write a 500 word evaluation of this module.

(Please complete your evaluation in this box)
At the beginning of this module, I had little clue about what visual literacy actually was and had never designed a character before. I didn't think I would be interested in character design at all, but now that i have tried it I realise I like it more than I thought I would. I learned alot of new skills in photoshop through creating my turn around and character sheets that will definitely benefit me with the program in the future, as I barely knew anything about it before this module. In my opinion I think the environmental storytelling went well; my drawing skill is one of the areas I feel confident in as I come from more of a fine art background and I think I captured perspective well in my drawings and choose media which suit my locations and set their mood.
I think I could have improved upon my life drawing skills for animation for this module, I am so used to doing fine art life drawing that I was putting too much detail into the quick poses. I searched for videos to help with this though and now feel I have a beter grasp at actually capturin gthe movement of a body. I think I could also have improved my turnaround and character sheets, I would have liked to have added shadows and more depth and detail to the character but as a newcomer to photoshop I didn't find the time. I also think my time management on this module has been off and I left things too late as other modules took precedence. I also would have liked to have generated more ideas for the set, series, sequence brief, I was quite confused about this brief and I think I should have done alot more experiments with texture and media etc.
I have learned for future projects that character design isn't as scary as I first thought it would be, I actually enjoyed the brief in the end and would like to do it again in the future. I also feel more adept at creating backgrounds around a certain character now and I really enjoyed the environmental storytelling module as background design is something that interests me. Hearing positive feedback about pieces of my enivornmental drawings that I thought weren't great made me more confident in my ability and the group critique also gave me new ideas from my peers work.