Dissertation

My dissertation was based on the idea of realism, and how it effects viewers visual perception and belief in a narrative of an animated film.
I discovered that the concept of realism in art is a wide and complex debate and many arguments became apparent whilst constructing my dissertation.
I explored the latest technological innovation of CGI and Traditional forms of animation and found some interesting discoveries.
The main body of the study considered the differences between 2D and 3D animated forms and discovered that despite their diversity it is clear that the main task is to make their work believable.

Walt Disney 'Pinocchio' (1940)

Pixar Studios 'Toy Story' (1995)

The aim of CGI is to capture or replicate an external reality, whereas traditional forms relied on the concept of anthropomorphism (injecting inanimate objects with human qualities).The main argument was discussing which of these two animated forms is more believable, whether the audience valued Manoviche's 'less is more' theory whereby the imagination plays a part or adds to the illusion of an animation or they were driven by technological developments of CGI and its constant drive towards photo-realism.The key themes of the dissertation was the consideration of fantasy realism, photo-realism,integration and visual perception on behalf of the audience.

Visual perception varies with each individual, people have different views and ideas as to how they percieve animation, I realised that it was impossible to establish which form of animation was more believable.

I really enjoyed writing the dissertation. I chose a subject which I found of great interest. The creative writing process although at first I found to be quite challenging, I found it to be a very enjoyable experience and I am very proud of what I have achieved.

Part [1] INTENTIONS - Exam Project proposal

Project title: The Body - For young and older readers

The Aim: is to create a visual solution which communicates the body and how it functions to two audiences. Merging two age groups into one product, converging something which is usually separate into one which will hopefully deliver a sharing experience encouraging both parties to investigate further. The book is intended to be an educational support which provides the older reader with facts and the knowledge to guide a child through the learning process.

The Brief: An illustrated explanation of the body’s functionality in the form of a book. The book as a whole will be created as an encyclopaedia/manual which will be divided to accommodate both adults and children. Both age groups will have access to scientific information of the same facts but the style and content will differ according to the age group.
The older reader or parent will be provided with a biomedical illustrated manual with information about the body’s functionality. The younger reader or sibling will be provided with a colourful and playful illustrative explanation about different parts of the body and how it functions.

Style: Adults
The adults section will form a manual which is part text based and part illustration, with the inclusion of black and white diagrams/technical drawings.

Style: Children
The child’s section will be in the form of an illustrated encyclopaedia, containing colourful illustrations and simple text. Experimentation with textures and pop-ups with in the book will encourage a child to explore and interact with the book.

Both young and older readers will have a clear divide in the book, as the illustrative elements and language used with in the book will differ and be contained on the left side for adults and the right side for children.

Childrens Book Festival

Today Me and Kelly went to the children's book festival held in the Theater over at Grande Parade, and it turned out to be a very valuable experience. I came away feeling very positive. Some interesting and helpful points were raised from a professional panel of illustrators and book authors giving advice on self promotion, getting an agent, legal issues and getting published. Their backgrounds varied from graphic design , Literary agents and successful publishers from Little Tiger Press and Puffin and authors.
(Look on kelly's blog for more info and pretty pictures about the festival, she's done a great job of explaining it in more detail).

Easter Break Up-Date

Over the Easter break I spent some time working and researching for my dissertation. The subject is on realism in animated films and focusing on how it effects the viewers perception and belief in the narrative. I discovered a book called Understanding Animation by Paul Wells.

Contents
Explains the defining characteristics of animation as a cinematic form.

Outlines different models and methods which can be used to interpret and evaluate animated films.

An explanation of narrative strategies.

An analysis of how comic events are constructed.

A discussion of representation.

The book was intended for the dissertation but its subject matter particularly discussions about anthropomorphism has influenced me towards my exam project.

My ideas are quite vague but I have a couple of starting points which I can begin to work from.
I have researched heavily on the subject of autism and have found it to be a fascinating subject.
I like the idea of breathing life into inanimate objects, children with autism don't look at things in the same way as other children without the condition, they can become terrified of objects and things for no apparent reason. One day an object may seem like a normal harmless thing that they don't pay attention to and don't even notice, another day the child can become very distressed if they are in close proximity to it.

I'm thinking about bringing my book for the d&ad to life in the form of an animation, concentrating on autistic traits particularly sensory sensitivity (vision, hearing, touch). Distorted vision - long flat planes of coloure, amplified sounds -industrial machinery.

I don't think as my self as an animator, I have done some animation in the past and its certainly not something that comes naturally as Im not impressed by the stuff i've created to date, but its definately something I would like to get my teeth into and who knows maybe i'll just make another book its still early days.
I've got a lot to think about, but at least its a start towards my exam project.

PYRS - My illustrated Book

Since my last post, I have come along way with the progress of my book. I am happy with the look and style of my illustrations. I have experimented allot with the layout and have finally got the pages complete.

I had to figure out exactly who the book was for: Children or Adults?
Was I going to include text in my book?
I decided that I wanted my book to be aimed at both, as this would make my book appeal to a larger audience. The book contains colourful self explanatory illustrations combined with simple text for children, and a descriptive paragraph ranging from 1 - 4 lines which is on the opposite pages for adults.

I found the text for the book the most challenging as I have never had to write a book before especially for children, I had to research allot of children's books and work out what age range the book would be suited to.

Permission to use Quotes
I am really happy as I have gained permission to use some quotes from the National Autistic Society, which are in the adults section of my book. I explained to them what I was doing and they were very supportive as long as they are credited, are shown a copy of my book and i also have to fill out a form online. I have used 4 Quotes all together and I feel they really deliver the message i am trying to get across in my illustrations. I thought it was important to include some facts about autism in the section aimed at adults and I'm very pleased I have.

My intention for the book beyond the D&AD brief is for an educational purpose, and to illustrate autism in a positive way, I feel I have managed to do this and am happy with the result.
I have received some very positive feedback from the tutors and they also gave me some ideas and tips which would improve the book, for example: justification of text, reducing the amount of text as its important to get across my ideas in as short a paragraph as possible as nobody wants to read mounds and mounds of text, as its an illustrated book after all.

Printing
Lee Oliver from the city college printers has been an absolute godsend, I gave him a mammoth task to print my book, I chose a fantastic heavy weight paper to print on. My book contains 16 pages, but because of the adults text on the opposite pages it means that they all have to be double sided, and the printer cant print double sided on the paper weight which I chose, so he had to turn each page manually. Then I wanted him to print the front and back covers on a different type of paper, you know me I've gotta be awkward. I spent all morning with him giving him tasks and he kindly said leave it with him and he gonna get it sorted by tomorrow morning which is great as I can then figure out how I'm gonna bind it. LEGEND!

Illustrated Book

I have gone with the illustrated book idea which is based on my cousin Pyrs. I have done allot of research on autism and each case is different. I spent the weekend at Pyrs's house and learned a great deal about how he copes with the condition. We are a close family, but living away for the past 4years means I havn't had that much contact with him, and spending time with him and his Mum was lovely in some ways but quite upsetting in another. Pyrs is such a happy child and has a wonderful life but at the same time autism is stopping him from doing things that I take for granted.
The book is not going to be a documentation about autism but a story which illustrates Pyrs's life and as autism is a huge part of how he lives on a day to day basis I have chosen to pick out certain autistic traits to illustrate.
Autistic Traits:
Hypersensitivity to sounds and certain colours.
Sounds are amplified and he gets very distressed in public places, he especially hates roadworks and electronic machinary.

" People everywhere, talking, wearing bright colours. The talking is like the pounding of horses hooves. The bright colours are blinding, the talking hurts my ears, the bright colours hurt my eyes"

(Quote taken from The National Autistic Society, Parant Book by Jane Shelds.)

Single Attention Span:
Pyrs becomes absorbed by one thing or object and he devotes his full attention to it. Its as if every one around him is transparent or don't exist. He becomes so absorbed that he doesn't respond even if you shout his name. A typical object would be a spinning coin or ball.

Obsessions:
Pyrs has a couple of odd obsessions at the moment but they do change quite regulary. His current obsession is with toothbrushes, he has loads of them. The toothbrushes are of the same style and brand but do vary in coloure. He likes them lined up in his playroom. He wouldn't accept any other style or brand of toothbrush as its not the same, it has to be the same.

Medication
Pyrs has to take prescribed medication on a daily basis which aids the condition.
Routine and Communication
Pyrs hasn't got a fixed routine as it would make the familys life difficult if there was a change.
His Mum communicates with a visual timetable which illustrates whats going to happen now and next. Pyrs must know whats going to happen next so he doesn't become distressed.

I am also going to illustrate his interests and hobbies.

Here's one of my illustrations for the book.
Hypersensitivity To Sound

Three Responses To The D&AD Briefs

Three ideas and responses to the brief:
1) Illustrated book about my cousin Pyrs.
Pyrs is a 6yr old boy who has autism and struggles with social communication, social integration and social imagination. people with autism have said that the world to them is a mass of people, places and events which they struggle to make sense of. Pyrs thinks in pictures, meaning that he communicates mainly with visual timetables, he needs constant reassurance of what is gong to happen next. Pyrs has many autistic traits such as obsessions with odd things and objects, and is frightened of bizarre things like raisons and carkeys. Autism a side, Pyrs is a very happy child and has lots of hobby's like any other child his age.
My intention for the illustrated book is not a documentation about autism, its going to be a story about my cousin who happens to have the condition.
Im not intending to make a dramatic sob story which highlights the devastation caused by autism, Im going to try and get an understanding of how he copes with everyday things. focusing on his like, dislikes, fears and obsessions etc.

2) Illustrated book about myself
A series of illustrations which focus on my fears and anxiety's, childhood and future aspirations.
Place my self in another time and place, how would I fit into society?

3)Create a character based on my autistic cousin Pyrs.

• Single attention - becomes absorbed by one thing and devotes his full attention to it.
• Routine - character repeats a routine over and over again, then the routine is broken. What happens?
• Sensory sensitivity
• Personality traits and quirks - Curiosity, clumsy, obsessive, fanatical,
• Create a character inspired by one of Pyrs's toys.

I have discussed my ideas with the tutors and I have decided to go with my first idea of creating an illustrated book about my cousin Pyrs.

D&AD

I have looked at the briefs for the D&AD awards and a couple of them are quite open for personal experimentation and I feel that these are the breifs I would like to look at closer.
The two briefs which appealed to me are:

HSI London - Create a character then portray its personality through animation.

Davisystems - Produce an illustrated book about yourself or someone else.

Both briefs involve the creation of an existing or fictional character who's personality is illustrated in a book or brought to life using animation methods.

Its half way through the final year at Uni and I feel that I need to create something which demonstrates my abillitites, and shows personal experimentation. The two briefs are quite open and this is my reason for shortlisting them.

Time to update

Been a while since my last post , so I better update and write about what ive been up to over the past three weeks.
Berlin/Transmediale
Berlin was amazing I really enjoyed the trip, the week was jammed with things to do every day. Transmediale was interesting, at the time I wasn't sure about some of the stuff that was being shown as I didn't realise that the festival would be so theory based with mainly seminars and was expecting to see alot more installations and art pieces. But since coming away from Berlin I am beginning to really appreciate Transmediale alot more. The festival was held in a lovely building in the centre of Berlin and there was a really nice relaxed atmosphere at the festivel. And some of the stuff I saw was very interesting and there were a couple of videos that I found inspiring.
Berlin itself was a beautiful place, I was shocked at the sheer scale of the city. I saw fanatastic sights but I would have liked to have seen alot more, I would definatley like to go back sometime in the near future.

Scotch Egg

Today Scotch egg came into uni to give a presentation. Scotch Egg is an experimental Producer/Dj who creates compositions using a gameboy. Yes a gameboy , not a nintendo or a Psp but a gameboy. I think it was a realy interesting use of nostalgic sound coupled with minimalistic style. The nostalga comes from the music and sound from the gameboy which is directly relational to our own childhood. Would be interesting to see how people who are not from the same era as us would react to his work.

Design for Interaction/Interactive Story Installation

Rationale
Interactive Story Installation

I have developed a concept for an interactive installation where the audience’s movements is an integral part of the piece. An interactive story that’s responsive and engaging even when the overall story has a single path structure. The story illustrates the negative effects man has on animals and there habitats. (Habitat destruction, Poaching, etc). When a habitat is destroyed or tampered with by man, the animals that occupy that site have no place to go, they get separated from their families and simply die off.

Viewers enter a long room (Installation space) an animation of animals grazing quietly is projected onto the far end of the room. The animals aren’t aware of the viewers at first. As the viewer moves closer to the animation they unknowingly set off sensors which triggers sound and effects to the animation. The animals look up and become aware of the viewers whereabouts. The closer the viewer gets the more sensors are triggered extracting more sound and frightening the animals more and more until eventually they fade away.
I see it as a progression through distance and space, an installation involving sensors which plays on the reaction to the audience’s movements when looking at the installation. Viewers have a choice, of how close he/she wants to get to the animals, they may decide to stop still or walk away from the installation knowing they are having a negative effect on the animals, or they may decide to continue to approach and move closer to see what will happen to the animals.
The story is offered to the viewers but its up to the viewer how far they want to take it. The concept will hopefully have a lasting effect on the viewer and will educate them about the negative effects they have on animal habitats, realizing that animals and there environments should be left alone.

With regards to the brief which describes new media to offer a viewer a new form of empowerment, this concept does just that but not visually, there are no buttons to press or paths to follow, the viewer has a space to move and walk around in, setting off sensors which create change in the story. Viewers will gradually figure out that the closer they get the more dramatic effect they will have on the animation and the choice is there’s as to how close they wish to get.

The technical parameters of the interactive installation would be as follows. A computer which runs Flash. A back projection screen positioned half way down a room, a projector pointing at the back of the screen projecting the animation. The animation would be designed in Flash. 4 PIR sensors pointing down from the ceiling which triggers the sound and changes in the animation, interfaced to flash through a Bluetooth enabled Arduino board. Speakers suspended from the ceiling which activate with the animation. This installation concept is possible to create given more time, and the technology needed in order for it to function is relatively cheap and easy to purchase.

New Idea?

My new idea remains an interactive installation which involves shadows as I feel I have researched a great deal in this area. My proposed concept is an interactive story installation which illustrates the effects humans have on animal habitats. My idea is inspired by a film I watched about habitat deconstruction and fragmentation. When a habitat is destroyed or tampered with by man, the animals which occupy that habitat have no place to go, so they simply die off.

The installation is an interactive story, an animation is projected onto a screen, virtual shadows or silhouettes of animals in there habitat grazing silently, e.g. deer, birds, rabbits etc. The animals aren’t aware of the viewer at first but as the viewer gets closer they unknowingly set off sensors which triggers sounds and effects the animation. The animals look up and towards the viewer. The closer the viewer gets and setting off more sensors the animals react and become more frightened. The sounds that would be triggered could be for example, crackling sounds like a workman standing on sticks and rustling through bushes, gunshots and machinery. If the viewer gets close to the animation the animals shadows begin to fade away.
The viewer has the choice of how close he or she would like to get to the animals, the types of animals and there movements depends on which sensor has been triggered by the viewer. I believe that the viewer will become aware that they are having an impact on the animals and they may decide not to get any closer or they may decide to walk right up to the animals.
When the viewer walks away from the animation, footprint shadows of an animal follows in the viewers footsteps. I think this would be a nice way to end the installation as animal tracking is a method used by hunters and poachers.
I believe that the set up and technicalities of the installation would be similar to my original idea. A room divided into two by a back projection screen, behind is a projector projecting the animation. Infrared sensors pointing down from the ceiling which trigger sound and changes in the animation e.g., animals looking up.
I’m unsure about how I could get the footprints to follow the viewers as they walk away. The idea of footprints following the viewer was inspired by an interactive installation called case-sandbox by plaplax, they used a system called I-trace but I haven’t had any luck finding any info about this.

plaplax (case-sandbox)

"at " is an interactive work using i-trace system*.

Footprints of various animals (e.g. cat, lizard, rabbit and elephant) follow users who step into the desert image projected onto the floor.
When someone crosses the other's footprints, people in the environment can catch a glimpse of the animalﾕs habitat such as sea, meadow, flower garden, etc., as if the crossing evokes
each animal's memories. Imagine the presence of animals from those footprints and scenes.

Animal tracking is a skill to read animal's footprints left in the nature. Tracking tells so much information (such as species, size, sex, territory and habit) which makes it possible to
characterize the animals vividly.

A footprint itself exists in the place but also tells the existence of someone there sometime ago. ("at" is a word not only for a point in the space but also for a moment in the time.)

* I-trace is an interactive system for illuminating the space developed by Yasuaki Kakehi. Using human tracking, computer graphics and projection technology, this system enables to draw one's trace and their crossing with various dynamic images in real-time.

Lucid Dreams

A lucid dream is a dream in which the person is aware that he or she is dreaming while the dream is in progress. During lucid dreams, it is possible to exert concious control over the dream characters and environment, aswell as to perform physically impossible feats. Lucid dreams are known to be extremely real and vivid.

My installation could be based on a lucid dream where the viewers focus shifts from small static objects on the ground to being able to interact with the objects shadows with there own shadows, giving them control over what happens to the shadows and the environment in front of them.
I like the idea of basing the installation on a childs lucid dream, objects could be toy soldiers and marbells etc. the objects them selves dont change but there shadows do and the viewer is able to interact with the shadows with there own shadows.