COP3 - Online Reading 2

Just some of the online resources that caught my interest

Margett, T. (2019) 'Using Animation as a Playground for My Memories', animationstudies 2.0, 7 January. Available at: https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=2830 (Accessed: 30/10/2019)

Maselli, V. (2018) 'The Invisible Memories of Animated Puppets' Materiality: An Interdisciplinary Overview', animationstudies 2.0, 12 February. Available at: https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=2358 (Accessed: 30/10/2019)

Detheux, J. (2016) 'Black & white, the most direct way to making the visible visible', animationstudies 2.0, 15 July. Available at: https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=1515 (Accessed: 30/10/2019)

https://animateddocs.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/just-a-mess-by-laura-stewart/ how simple can you go?

Week 4

Case Study

Feeling a bit stuck, I stumbled upon the Gon the Little Fox by TECARAT in my research.


Action for next week: to contact TECARAT

This opened up more options of rigging and use of dressing materials for sets.

I got to see the full film at the World Animation Social 24/10/2019 at LAU as well. 

Week 3

Group Tutorial

Group tutorials helped me to see what interpretation my peers have when I pitched the developed idea to them for the first time. It is an excellent way to collect fresh thoughts and ideas. Acting as a test of clarity for the chosen research question.

At this point, I needed more research so I skim-viewed articles containing keyword 'set' at the following website https://stopmotionmagazine.com/ and did more research on other pages. All links that got my attention in some way or another can be found on the link below. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-PrHpM0ci5NsSP2QnsjmR7HYz6oHPHHpYgfrIRoyxxg/edit?usp=sharing

The ones, directly connected to my research are:

Wallace, J. (2017) Hand Carving. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTSI740Blq2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link (Accessed: 19/10/2019)
Savage, A. (2018) 'Designing the Stop-Motion Sets of Aardman Animation's Early Man!', Adam Savage's Tested, 13 February. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBdOPgsfdGA (Accessed: 17/10/2019)

Dondis, D. A. (1974) A Primer of Visual Literacy. Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Week 2

Solidifying the Topic

After further brain-storming into areas of interest in set building and my first 1-2-1 tutorial, I have chosen a substantial topic. Sustainable stop-motion set structures — oomph so many Ss.

Discussion with my tutor has highlighted that my research question is still somewhat broad and that I need to define 'sustainable'. Also, bullet point what other aspects am I looking at when evaluating existing sets. What would the set designer take into consideration? How does budget, ease of use, durability etc. inform their decisions.

Next, I need to think about my practical investigation and the actual outcome. I am building a set, the theoretical research will support that, yet I need to clarify how I will test the success of this product.

Week 1

The briefing, Initial ideas and Presentation

The chosen topic for the dissertation - related to Sign Language Animation, was changed the day before presentations. By sudden realisation that the area of research in CoP1 and CoP2 no longer seem to connect to the techniques of animation that are going to be researched and used in other modules this year. That being stop-motion. Whereas, looking into character animation in Sign Language leans towards CGI and 2D Digital techniques. Previous CoP projects have proven SL Animation requires a vast amount of planning, preparation and collaboration. All necessary for such project to come to light — therefore locking it away in a trunk to be kept as a personal side project or better, for MA studies. Instead, this module will focus on exploring the underground of stop-motion sets.

Presentation Material

Evaluating the areas of interest, talks and books that can leave any stop-motion enthusiast speechless:

Wilford, L. and Stevenson, R. (2018) Isle of Dogs. New York: Abrams. This book is describing some of the thought processes of building the sets. Dondis, D. A. (1974) A Primer of Visual Literacy. Massachusetts: The MIT Press. One of my favourite books, which explores breaking art down into simple elements, will be useful in breaking the sets down to understand how they are built.
I want to learn more about sets. The fact is, I am not sure how I would approach building a set if I were to do it again. I do not feel as such there is a formula for building sets from the stop-motion books I have seen. At the moment I am interested in the two:
1. Adaptation of sets for special effects and elements such as fog, steam, lights. 2. Being opposed to styrofoam carving, I hope to learn what sustainable and functional ways of a set building are practical. Thorough research into building sets will be more than useful in the attempt to get to know my options and alternatives, and it will inform my EP.