Kilogramme Animaition

I've wrote about this company before on here, but after visiting 'tandem films' and thinking that's where I'd fit in, I realized that Kilogramme is similar.

Here's there show reel

Kilogramme Showreel from Kilogramme on Vimeo.

And here's a video showing that they use different styles for each of there projects (they have freelance animators...so of coarse there going to be different) but its still good to show off this fact. Plus, this is the text below the video on the 'Vimeo' website...

'Here are a few different styles we've used over the years. Some became short films and adverts, some were just for fun'

Its nice to see a company who are experimenting even if it never gets used...these style tests could help in their future so its really good there doing stuff like this...maybe we should all take from this.

style test from Kilogramme on Vimeo.

Nosy Bear - Making Of

during the 'Jack and Tom Secret Project (which isn't a secret) Session' today, March 30th, we stumbled across a making of video... it has the maker of the animation (Fran Krause) doing a voice over, over the top of the video. Its short, just under two minuets, and informs us very briefly (but very effectively)  on how and why it was made.

Here's the animation with the 'making of' below that, enjoy....






I liked the animation, but I liked it even more after finding out how it was made, because I too like to animate small, then I'm having to enlarge my frames on the scanner...so seeing someone do an animation which has been made from these tiny pictures gives me hope!

Ren & Stimpy

Ident | 10 | bird bird bird, bird is the word

The idea of pitching to a smaller group has worked out quite well. After pitching my idea to David Bagulay and Ashleigh Butterworth, I got the idea given to me to introduce a bird to the ident.
Dave n' Ashleigh were saying that the start of my ident needs somthing else...look for your self...

This is the animatic I showed Ashleigh and Dave.

they were right...the start is boring and you don't have much to look at and the introduction of a bird would fit in perfectly.

The idea is that the first half of the ident is looking down at the mountain... a birds eye view "ho ho" so i need the same of the bird, which is easier than a side view, plus there's no camera movement so i dont have to think about changing the perspective of the bird.

Here's phase one (below) of bird animation...rough

this one below is the bird cleaned up...but he looks too clean, I have to remember he's flying over a mountain fast, and birds feathers would always flap at that height and speed, so I made extra frames on the wings and feet to make him look like he's actually in flight....and also living.

then i realized his tail and feet seem to disappear...oops 

Fixed

London | Goldilocks and the Three Studios

We visited three studios in London; Cine Site, Nexus and Tandem. Here's what i think...


Cine Site
This was the last of the three we visited, it was the most professional visit we went on, which could be seen as a good thing...but I would say its a bad thing. We had to sign a form to say we would not speak of what we saw there (understandable) We were guided round by two people, one at the front, one at the back. We saw the companies show reel...all positive stuff.

Watching people work there, they all looked happy, who would be happy working on blockbuster films? You can't fault the look of the place either, the building was really nice, kept clean and had a calm feel to it, it was huge though, you could probably get lost in there! It didn't have loads of people running round shouting stuff and people ordering people to do stuff, people panicking about deadlines etc, so that was quite nice.

I was a really nice place, I was going to say how it annoyed me how we only heard the positives from the company, but the lady who took us round told us of the negatives ('skyline' was a flop) and gave it to us straight saying, she said:

. about how their a company and have to think about money, and keeping a float

. told us that the show reels they want to see are things with photo real stuff in it

. skyline was a flop

. you might start off making cups of tea, then work on a shitty film, then go on to the big stuff

She was very honest.
But its not for me. Its too impersonal, she talked about the company not the individuals and that put me off. Plus my work has never been 'Photo real' so I wouldn't' stand a chance of getting in there. She never talked about animation skills though.

This porridge was too hot!



Nexus
This was the second place we went to, the place was tall and thin meaning it was all cramped inside. It occupied about 4 floors (one being the basement) the first floor was really hot and stuffy, but we got a really nice breakdown of some of the projects they work on... what was nice was that we were talking to one person for most of the time on the 1st floor, but other people started to pitch in and say stuff and started to get other work up which they wanted us to see, which was positive, because it meant they were proud about what they do there.


We went to the top floor where the directors lived (and also the air-con), we spoke to one of them (three in total....two freelance one permanent, think thats right) called Johnny Kelly, he was a nice guy. He told us about generally working in the industry which was good to hear about, learned a bit from that.


This porridge was too cold...but I might like cold porridge



Tandem  
We started off the day at Tandem Films. We were shown around by Danial Greaves and it was as if we were invited for breakfast at his house, nothing seemed planned, we just came in and he took us round. I thought that was good, it made it much more relaxed, in comparison to cine site which we started out be signing forms.
He took us to peoples working areas and we watched them work for a bit (I'm guessing they didn't like that, that much!) but we watched them and asked them questions which they were all to willing to answer. 
The basement was where they did green screen editing and kept the clients (which everyone found hilarious)


We all crammed into the editing room where we watched their show real and much more. We were in there for ages and probably overstayed our welcome... but we got so much out of Danial Greaves. 


What Mr Greaves had to say was so interesting, from him talking about his own work to talking about the animation industry and how tandem works. How he came to make manipulation was a really nice story. Then speaking to another of the Directors there (his name slips my mind) and watching one of his pieces of work was also really interesting (he was a bit more willing to speak about his work...called Text Island)  
Watching one of the employees at Tandem working on a new short for Simon's Cat made me realize that this is what i like to do and people pointed that out to me as well. 




Its the mixture of seeing someone animating and also listening to the directors talking about side projects which they work on,  which makes me realize that the Porridge was just right here.

Ident | 9 | Tests

My vision seems to becoming clearer now I have these tests to look at. Loving the style, liking the colours but, need to work on...

. Camera angles

. Taking out odd squares here and there

. Do printmaking for the final one

. Think about Bird (I don't think I've mentioned this yet)

This test (below) doesn't have the textures moving, within the moutin, and people are thinking it looks odd because there static, but the background isn't, sooooo....

...this one has the textures, within the mountain, moving downwards as well as the background, I personally think it doesn't make a difference.

As well as the that list above I also need to work on making it more knowing that we're looking at a mountain...Chris had trouble knowing what it was which made me think weather it's easy to understand or not...maybe the sound might help???

Ident | 8 | Working Hard or Hardly Working

From my pitch to Dave Baguley and Ashleigh Butterworth today (11th March) I realized I needed to get my hand done effect, which I want happening in the background, set in stone, Dave had a hard time understanding it....and to be honest it made me realize I still didnt know what I wanted it to look like.

In the afternoon I gave up for the day. Until Sarah Brewster said something which made me realize I was wasting time, but didn't know what to do, so i looked around for something to pass the time.

Etching and Printmaking Handbook was the first thing I saw.

I remember getting this in the first year...and also in college (ND Graphics) and it made me think back to my work created within the sessions. I went home and dug up my printmaking from my old graphics coarse...it was the style I've been looking for.

This one (above) is a little bit harsh, but still could work

Little bit too....i don't know the word, but, you know, there's no fade out.

So instead of buying a roller and some paint (like I was going to do, to get the style I wanted) I think I might try out some printmaking.

*Update

So Im not wasting time during the weekend, i thought that i'd use these prints from 3 years ago to see if the style would look good...

This is one I made from using paint marks about a week ago, we think it looks too static...

I think the colours are nice, but its lacking something.

This one (above) has a bit more to it, and if i was to do more of them and put them into after effects and make them move, the style might work well.

Berlin 2010

There's only one thing I want to talk about that relates to Berlin 2010. I took only a few pictures thereand it was only pictures of things that interested me. This is my favorite...

We went to the 'Film Archive Museum' where they keep loads of stuff from films which aren't being shown in museums at the moment, we saw loads of stuff.
But it was this suitcase that I liked the most... I don't even think it was part of the archive, it was just on a trolley with loads of junk in the camera section of the building.

The reason i liked it was the stickers on the side, it gives the suitcase history, stickers from all the hotels its been to. Its not just the face that it has these stickers on it , but the stickers them selves are really nice pieces of art...

 The use of colour is really nice in this one (above) greens n' yellow, with the light blue sky.

The way, with age, the sticker has come apart is also noice.

 This on (above) is my favorite, firstly the colours are really nice, its also very stylish and lastly, it reminds me of 'GTA: Vice City'

That was Berlin 2010

Ident | 7 | Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's somthing else that's influencing me

Introduction to the shining, I like the way the camera is moving through the environment.




Watching from 1 minuet 8 seconds, the camera going really close to the road and car is really nice. I think for my ident, going from far away shots to close up in one movement throughout could be effective...would have to try and see...

...But from this first test done mostly by rick, i can see the camera movement working.

Also the style is exactly what I want.

Ident | 6 | Blinded By The Light

 The music in the background actually goes well with the test! that wasn't planned

The idea is to have this blinding light fill the screen in the ident (which will come from the sun) as we crane up from the environment, not decided what the environment is yet though. I'm looking at mountains and deserts etc.

This is a test i did in flash, its really bad, its not the style im going at all...to by quite honest, i dont know why i wasted time drawing out this thing...but! it dose get across the brightness of the sun I'm going for and also this central line through out the crane up.

Ident | 5 | Style in Motion

I told you about Lou Romano, well, I wanted to find a style like that but in moving image. Here's two I found...



The colours and textures are nice in this one...





Watch from 2 minuets in...a nice 3D effect happening which i'd like to try.





Here are two videos from Lou Romano which he did for 'Up'






*UPDATE

After speaking to rick about my idea on March 4th it seemed like my vision would look dull once the piece settles (as a voice over says whats coming on next), so he was saying about animating the background/ the textures so they change and flicker.

I always liked this animation since I saw it, like, six or seven months ago. Unfortunately all I'm using it for is to reference how the texture in the background of the animation is always changing and thats all.

It might be on a loop of about three or four textures...




Jon And Roy - Get Myself A Gun from BLATANT on Vimeo.

Here's another example of an animation with textures in it, some/ most are static, and the looped ones are very subtle.

Ident | 4 | Looking Through Books and Watching Planet Earth

 

book name

most of them are black and white...but i can get a sence of shape, texture and look of some the the places in the world.

the light coming through the clouds and dividing through the mountains is dramatic

could put lighting in the ident somehow 

angry image (above) 

 

watch name

these next three below show different times in the day :)

 so do the next two below :(

now, I like this one (below) this really nice cut halfway through the mountain, made by the light and shadows...would go well with this central thyme I'm thinking of

another show with centralness

the shadows on cast from the low sun could also create a central line. 

and this is grand central

Ident | 3 | Inspration and Thoughts for Idea 1

All these wildlife documentaries rely alot on these fantastic shots of a landscape which will leave us in awe, programs like 'planet earth' shown on BBC 1 (repeated on eden) show us some really nice shots.

The shots art really artistic and that's become something which each show has to do better than the last or else no one will watch them...lets face it, the stuff these programs show would be boring if it wasn't for these fantastic shots, the only other fascinating bits are the facts we learn from them...but you'd buy a book if that's the case.

These are screen grabs from the eden website on the 'programs' page. these are for different programs shown on eden, just looking at these, you know, you have either spectacular shots or very arty ones...

 liking the reflection.

 this on (above) i really like

So for one of my ideas i wanted to look into colour and epicness. Getting across this feeling of awe and fascination  when you watch these documentaries into the eden ident.

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I particularly like the idea of it looking rough...not undone, but using paints or the effect of paint etc...giving it a nice 'made' style.

but, im afraid of it looking too childish...its not a bad thing to look childish (as it could be shown at nine in the morning) but i want something that anyone can watch and feel fine with.

Here's what I'm inspired by...


 Lou Romano (his blog) is someone who really inspires me...this gouache painting are just so good, he been credited on a few of pixars films (incredables, up etc) for art direction and he dose the colour scripts for the pixar films...well the ones i mentions and some others.

Here's his work from up...

 

Came across these which i really like...he uses colour really well to distinguish each season. I want to look at colour for my ident.

 

 

I like the paint marks made in his work and also the colour/ use of lighting. I want to find a way to convert these sort of static images...well...i say static, there's movement in them...but i mean i wanna move them!


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So just to reiterate, I want to take the epicness and artisticness of these shots created in documentaries and bring it to the identity of the eden channel...but using this style of painting (weather that be really painting or digital)

Compositionally I was thinking '2001: A Space Odyssey'...really like this film, and was struck by some of the really ambitious shots and compositions with in the film.

I like the centralness of some of the shots and want to incorporate that into my ident...

Going to research places which I ant to base my ident on (cant just draw something off the top of my head...if Im going to draw a tree, a want to draw a certain type of tree, if you get me)
Also going to do some thumb nails of what i've researched which will eventually expand into animatics.