An old example of an animation...

This is the animation I created for the beginning of Viscom, but I thought it might be a good example to show hand-drawing a sequence of images, editing them all on photoshop e.g. adding colour and cropping, that are then put together (in this instance using i-movies). This is a long, and repeatative way of creating an animation. I now have a graphics tablet and woul perhaps try using flash to draw my images and sequence them.

Playing around with animated GIFs.

An animated GIF is created by placing a series of images in layers, over one another and then timing each layer to be shown for a certain time. I had never explored GIFs before, an still wasn't clear on how exactly they were created. I found an amazing website http://macanimationpro.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=183491, that took me through how to create an animated GIF in Photoshop step-by-step. I created a really simple GIF at first, sporting my original blog name, which I have placed on my blog (amber-zombiekillswallow.blogspot.com).

Film Animation

In the 1890s, Charles-Émile Reynaud (inventor of the praxinoscope) created an animation system using a loop of 12 pictures. In 1892 in Paris he exhibited loops consisting of 500 images, using his Theatre Optique system - similar to a modern film projector.

An amazing example of stop motion animation...

This is an absolutely amazing example of stop motion. Every little attention to detail is astounding and the time this must have taken...pshhh.

Other types of animation.

So I've looked at stop motion, but there are other types of animation. For example, animating a series of photographs, by placing them in sequence and making it run. I have also created animation by drawing an image and then replicating this, changing only the slightest of movements in each one. I will trial creating an animation out of sequencing a set of photographs and put them together an as animation, which I shall post soon.

Stop motion animation...

I decided to play around with some stop frame animation, using plasticine and simple line drawing backdrops. I find stop motion the easiest animation to do, but can take a lot of patients. It's also hard to keep the lighting exactly the same in each shot when working on a make-shift location, and need to also ensure that the camera re-focuses properly for each shot otherwise it can occassionally appear blurry.

Stop motion is an animation technique, in which you physically manipulate an object to make it look as if it is moving without any help.

This animation is called 'Little Man Sandpit', to go with the title of this brief.

VJ and some history....

1965 San Francisco. Ken Kesey and the Prankster created Acid tests, described as an unscripted spontaneous Multimedia happening.

1966 New York. At a show, The Velvet Underground and Nico walked onto a stage in front of a movie screen and the dark began to tune up. Andy Warhol worked on one movie projector, playing a silent version of 'vinyl', his interpretation of 'A Clockwork Orange', on the screen. Superimposed on this by another movie projector (run by Paul Morissey) were close up shots of Nico singing "I'll keep it with mine" by Bob Dylan. Then as the Velvet Underground began to play, Edie Sedgwick and Gerard Malanga moved to center stage and began gyrating in a free form dance pattern. The whole ensemble was now playing in front of the two movies. 

(exert taken from The History of VJ, by Michael Heap)

VJ and animation

I want to explore live VJing and animation. 

the definition of a VJ is someone who creates moving visual art, often on large screens at events such as gigs, club nights, festivals or in conjunction with other performance artists. It can include pre-recorded video. Techonology wise, wikipedia states "often using a video mixer, VJs blend and superimpose various video sources into a live motion composition". Never having done VJing myself, the concept of how you actually do it is still a little over my head. However if possible, would jump at the opportunity to have a play around.

Here is an example of VJing. This is a simple VJ, constructed of various old school disney clips and a music track. It's a Mr. Scruff VJ mix- Get a Move On.

Here is an example of another VJ live set by Eyescream in 2006.

We have been looking at the subject of 'urban interaction'. I got the understanding that this is pretty much an explanation of anything which involves interacting and communicating somehow with others in a public environment- examples of this could be through transport networks, time based gaming, geocaching etc. 

We created a task for another group of students to complete when in Bradford. We asked them to follow the marked out word (Bradford) on the map, not straying at all from the marked route. Whilst they were in each part of the route, they had to take 1 photograph of a sign/poster, or anything similar, that included that letter. Giving someone this game is not only a way of collecting photographs from an unknown area, but also leading them around a new city.

The Sandpit

The Sandpit. This is my current brief exploring communication technology.