Artist/Animator - Suture Blue

I have stumbled upon the work of an artist/animator online named Suture Blue that has produced a number of animated GIF's that incorporate video footage/interference as a kind of colour fill for the animation created, I find this tchnique really interesting and I would like to experiment with this in my own animations using after effects.

Animation & Film Making - Ross Hogg - 'Scribble Dub' & 'Isabella'

https://vimeo.com/136430442

I have come across an animator by the name of Ross Hogg, I find his work interesting as it is thought provoking and wish to investigate a lot of the processes he uses, some being analogue in that he has created an animation named 'scribble dub' whereby he has hand painted and scratched into film, projected it and filmed the results to produce a very unique looking animation with warm colours and plenty of grain.
A reason why I have chosen to talk about Hogg's work is that through looking at his work and the work of others I have realised that animation doesn't have to be telling a story through made up characters on a screen, or even telling a story, it could be adding atmosphere to a film, taking the audience on an emotional journey via an audiovisual combination without the aid of physical reference points such as characters/environments.
Looking at work like this interests me due to that fact that it opens up new avenues of exploration in terms of processes and subject matter, I'm also gaining more of a confidence in where i would like to take animation as a profession.

'G-Mod Idiot Box' - Unconventional Ways of Producing Animation

I found this approach to animation very curious and unique as the creator was using an existing 3D game environment complete with character presets SFX and VFX to his advantage by using a game hack/modification program to produce an animation by moving the characters and editing the environments they are put in.
What the mod also enables the creator to do is change the facial/bodily expressions of the characters to any degree they see fit, which makes for some very surreal looking expressions.
I am not sure of the legality of this method of animation, using and modifying somebody else's creation in order to create your own piece of creative expression, but i do feel that this method could be used to produce some interesting results, not just for entertainment/narrative purposes but for more artistic purposes.

Online Culture - 'a e s t h e t i c' & Re-appropriation of Animation

A couple of days ago I encountered a music genre called 'vaporwave' which first originated around 2010 and was released on the internet, at first the the music genre was meant to be satirical, a jibe at consumerist society and so-called pretentious musical genre's. It consists of  audio samples from retro instructional videos and 808 drum machine production styles.
Album covers and artist names featured retro reference imagery and names such as 'Macintosh Plus' an artist who you could say became a meme for the genre of vaporwave.
Through investigating this online phenomena and musical genre I discovered this video whereby The Simpsons have been reappropriated into a kind of 80/90's montage akin to cinematography of miami vice. I think this works because The Simpsons began in the late 80's and kept the fashions of that time attributed to the characters we see in the series.
I find it interesting how an online movement revolving around the retro, and fashions of the 80's/90's has been able to re-appropriate imagery and audio into something that embodies what the consumerist society has become in its; old, grainy, washed out, tired look.

Animated GIF's

Animated GIF's I feel can act in a number of ways and be split into different categories such as; comedy, art, advertisement, political commentary etc. I also think that as with any form of animation, GIF's have the ability to be used in whatever context you would like them to be used in.
However it is important to recognise that GIF's may not be suitable in every context, a example would be that you would shy away from using GIF's in a presentation to corporate clients.

Tools For Documentation and Experimentation - Research

I have acquired a point and shoot film camera for extra documentation and experimentation purposes such as, using film photographs to produce an animation, developing ideas for stylisation of different environments e.g capturing certain qualities/values of light and tone.


I have also decided to further my documentation and experimation by making use of an old camcorder for the nice grainy visual quality that I like and that I am exploring currently.

External Project - Stage Visuals 2 - Research

Through my research into VHS mixing and editing styles I have altered the footage of my animation to mimic that of an old altered VHS tape by altering the colour channels in the channel mixer fx option in premiere. I have also added more sharpness to the image to receive that grainy effect that video cassettes give off.
Through this experimentation I feel i am now able to apply this combination of different effects into more aspects of personal professional practice and other modules aswell.

External Project - Stage Visuals - Research

Here is another piece of work that is for an external project that will be used by an artist to use as background projection. This short animation will feature as part of a series of different loops made by using frame by frame animation. The artist has requested that the work be not too considered and leaning more towards the rough aesthetic.
I have taken on this work to deepen my understanding of what frame by frame animation can be and the different effects that can arise through experimentation in this process.
There will be a vague narrative to these animations, of a homeless man's struggle.

Copyright Seminar - Research (OUAN402)

I felt it necessary to document on this blog the seminar on copyright due to the nature of future work i may produce, using various clips from different sources and how i might steer clear of any legal issues regarding copyright laws.

External Collective Project - Posibility of Motion Graphics - Research (OUAN402)

 These images have been developed from sketches in my sketchbook. Partly inspired by Michael Craig-Martin and the work of Nazusk, a sheffield based artist.
These pieces are part of a body of personal work that i am developing alongside my studies as part of a collective that is in the early stages of formation.
An idea I had whilst creating these pieces started by asking myself if i could make these pieces move some how, turning them into motion graphics. I shall start by first making some GIF's out of these images for simplicity and reflect on how effective that was as a motion graphic promoting the collective.

Arthur Lipsett - Research - (OUAN402)

Arthur Lipsett was a film maker who enjoyed collecting various clips footage and audio, he translated these found pieces of footage and audio into audiovisual collages, though they are abstract you can certainly detract from them the atmosphere that Lipsett was trying to bring across to the audience.
I chose to research in to Lipsett for his video & audio collage work as I am curious as to how i might go about bringing the collage element of my own work into my animation practice.
By researching into other practitioners who have 'cut and stitched' moving image and audio together it will help me to form practical and technical ideas about how I might go about bringing in this element into my own work.

CDT Crew - Youtube - VHS mash ups and editing style (OUAN402)

CDT (Crazy Dave Tapes) is an online entity that creates video mixtapes featuring found VHS footage and other audiovisual ephemera. The types of clips that usually feature in the mixtapes are of old novelty TV ads, cheap movie remakes/rip-offs, 'cheesy' kung-fu and action movies, budget horror movies, public access TV segments and more.
What interests me about this work is the raw, rough stitched together aesthetic that is incorporated into the work. It tries to make something that is a bridge between entertainment and art, something which I myself would like to experiment with and a direction that i see my own practice moving towards.
Because most of the footage is of old VHS movies and ephemera, there seems to be a comment on how far we have come with technology and special effects and these mixtapes seem to make a spectacle of that. Looking at these mixtapes and analyzing them I have noticed that there is a method to the madness in terms of editing and layering up footage and audio, the creators have made sure that there is a fluidity to the sequence of different clips and by doing that the viewer isn't waiting for something to happen but rather, bombarded with a stream of moving imagery and audio.
I shall experiment with video collage and try and think of ways that i can bring  this element together within my own practice of animation, responses will be documented as part of the process of reflection and my own primary research.

The Big Lez Show - Reserch - (OUAN402) - PPP1

'The Big Lez Show' is a crudely animated Australian cartoon independently produced by Izak Whear, Jarrad Wright & Tom Hollis.
Even though the overall look of this animation is rather crude I feel it works well as a whole, because the cartoon is humorous the simplicity of the animation really gives the dialogue room to tie in the humor and makes the mythology of the show.
The reason the animation perhaps looks very low budget/rough is because all frames for the animation are produced in Microsoft Paint and then compiled into a video editing software, it's this simplicity of production - I think -  that allows the creators of the animation to add originality and imagination to their storylines consisting of people from another planet, enlightened Sasquatches and alien invasions.
Overall I would say I like this animation as it shows that keeping production very simple and low budget means that you can have more fun developing dialogue, narrative, character design, things that I myself enjoy much more than spending a lot more time developing the finished product.
I plan to investigate more into 'amateurish' looking, low budget cartoons to build up more of an idea of what makes them work and what the drawbacks are to this qualty (or lack thereof) of production. I also would like to experiment with these rough production techniques myself to try and build up an 'armory' of different techniques to choose from for a given project.

Absorb- concept art

 The drawings in blue are inspired by the concept art of the matrix.


I really enjoyed drawing the combination between organic and mechanical shapes.

Photoshop Session Animations.

Here are two animations that i have created in the photoshop induction sessions using onion skinning and key framing.

As simple animations I am quite pleased with the results I have produced, it has helped me to better understand the tools available on photoshop.

I found that the top animation was easier to produce as I was key framing, it is also a much faster process as you are able to 'tween' (automatically fill in frames between two key frames.

 The animation below that was using the straight ahead principle of animation, perhaps this is why the animation has more of a fluidity to it compared to the animation produced via key framing/ pose to pose.

Who am I? Why am I here? What do I want to learn?

Why did you choose to study on this programme?

I chose to study on the animation programme because I have a keen interest in sequential imagery, and animation seemed likely to be the next step in my natural progression as a creative practitioner.
I chose to study here specifically due to the way the course had been described to me as being very non-prescriptive in the way that students are encouraged to try all forms of animation to better discover where their interests lye and pursue them actively through set briefs.
I also chose to study on this programme as I really like the sense of community that I encountered whilst studying the ED programme previously at Leeds college of art.
The potential for what could be achieved whilst studying this programme really grabbed my attention whilst searching for other university programmes that I would like to study.
As I am very much a multi-disciplined creative practitioner with an interest in moving image and storytelling, I felt that this programme would be the best to tie in all of my skills together.

What do you want to learn during your time on the programme?

During my time on the program I would like to develop a basic understanding of all forms of animation so that I might effectively apply that knowledge to my own practice within the creative industry.
I would like to learn how rude animation within more of a contemporary art setting, how it might be applied to fine art installations etc.
I would like to learn how to incorporate my own artistic vision\aesthetic into moving image through animation.
I would like to learn more about the animation industry, different roles in particularly, so that I have a better understanding of where in the industry my skill set may best be utilized.
I would also like to develop a better awareness of what is current in the industry, what direction the industry is going in and to be more conscious of animators and animation in general.

What skills do you think are your strengths?

I would say that my ability to think visually and imagine how things look when they move is one of my strengths.
My ability to not be too critical of initial ideas & sketches is one of my strengths, as it allows me to quickly get a project started with lots of ideas being generated at the same time.
My intuition and ability to understand other peoples ideas and communicate with them on a collaborative project is another of my strengths.
I work well when I am on my own, my independence and ability to discipline myself when necessary is one of my strengths.
My ability to interpret a brief and engage with it independently to produce something that is unique to me is another of my strengths.

What things do you want to improve?

I want to improve my organizational and time keeping skills.
I would like to improve/develop my motivation levels in regards to being inspired to create, or develop more of an interest in various animators, animations & series, techniques and processes.
I want to improve my technical understanding of different softwares that will be useful in creating animations.
I want to develop my understanding of colour theory, and how it may be utilized within animation.
I would like to improve on my work rate,being able to recognize when a piece of work is finished rather than being too critical of the end product and trying to perfect it.

What ways will you evaluate your progress?

I will evaluate my progress by referring to feedback- seeing how far I have come along by assessing the feedback I gather from peers & tutors.
I shall reflect on previous work and recognize where I have improved and where there is room for improvement.
I can include evaluative notes in blog posts so that there is effectively a timeline of evaluative notes to refer back to, should I forget what it is that needs improvement.
A full written evaluation at the end of each module may also help me to evaluate my progress, as I would be taking considerable time to reflect on what I have learnt and what I could have done better etc.
A diary to hold evaluative notes may also be useful.