E4 Monster Final Ident

This is the final Ident for our E4 Monster. We were asked to make a Stop Motion Animation to advertise the Channel E4. My partner Rachael and I had several ideas of what we could do for the Ident, we chose this one because we thought that it would be the best Ident to get across the channels vibe. 

After we decided on the idea we were going to use, then we started making the set and getting together the props that we needed to use. I went out and got the fabric to make the monster and Rachael got the Lego people and to cars. 

The first thing we made was the road, Rachael pencilled out the perspective of the road and I painted it whist she found some photographs of buildings that we could stick on the front of our cardboard boxes. Once Rachael had found the pictures that we wanted to use I measured out the size of the boxes and re-sized the photographs on the computer. 

After I had done that Rachael printed and cut them out, I then stuck them on the boxes that we had. Then the only things left to do was to print out the background which I did and to make the E4 Monster which was Rachael's main job. 

When I finally got the right fabric for the purple fur I gave to to Rachael and she finished the Monster. It looked great, but we did change one thing, the mouth. The first mouth that Rachael had put on the Monster was a smile, it looked to cute and cuddly to be a evil destructive Monster, so I made a new mouth before we started shooting the real Ident.

We decided to make the Monster to look like the E4 logo because we didn't think that we could fit the logo in anywhere else. Once we had figured out if we were going to make an E4 Monster like we did or make a Monster with the E4 logo on it, we got to making the prop. To make the Monster we had to cut out some cardboard in the shape of the E4 logo, we then stuck on a printed out version of the logo for a outline. We then stuck on the fur on the outside of the 3D skeleton we made from cardboard, we used the outline on the logo to tell us where to put the fur on the front of the monster. After we had done that, we stuck on the mouth and goggly eyes, to make the monster more realistic. 

When we were shooting the Stop Motion Ident, I started out as the animator and then realised that I was not very good at the fiddly little people, so I became the camera woman. Then realised that the lighting was a bit off and we had to improvise because we only had one light, so we had to use a white background to bounce the light off of at just the right angle to get the whole set lit properly. After we did that, we started again and took 133 photographs, for a steady flow of persistence of vision you need about 120 frames for a 10 second long Stop Motion. The fact that we had 133 frames made for a very good persistence of vision. 

When we showed our Stop Motion Animation to the rest of the class and this is what they said

• The Set was made very well
• I like the fact that the mouth changes
• There are some light issues
• The camera moves a bit
• The road moved at the start
• The sound worked well throughout but it would have been better with background music
• The animation is flickery at times
• Maybe it shouldn't fade out at the end
• It has a movie like background but it doesn't end well for example there is no punchline

Most of these points I agree with, but I did however like the fact that it faded out in the end. I have to admit that there are some lighting issues we could have remedied if we had two lights instead of reflecting one of a white background. I thought that this was a very good Stop Motion Ident for the channel because it is strange and interesting just like the channel and the shows that they air. So in short it was not our favourite idea to start with but it came out strong and worked very well. As a team Rachael and I worked very well, we shared the work load and did our fair parts, we organised who would be in charge of what parts of the Ident and then we helped each other out if we couldn't do it on our own. We improved on our test shots a lot, and I believe that all in all we did a very good job.

Test Run for E4 Monster

This is a very early version of the E4 Monster idea. We only had limited props when we shot this test. As you can see it is very jumpy and only a couple of seconds long. I just wanted to get the general idea. When my partner had made the real E4 Monster we did another test shoot.

This is the final test shot for the E4 Monster. It is a full 10 second long test shoot. I think that this went very well, for a test shoot. There are some things that I would change when we did the actual Stop Motion. These things would be the timing of the sounds and the fact that its very jumpy. I would use more frames in the actual making of the Ident. Also the lighting is a bit erratic so I would try to sort that out. I would also move the fire around so that it looks more realistic and is not just static. 

Test Run for Stop-Motion

Test Run for Stop-Motion Animation

This is a test run for making a Stop-Motion animation, we used object animation to make this 10 second clip. We did a test run so that when we did the real thing we would know what to do, we could sort out the things that went wrong with this clip. Watching other groups videos also gave us an idea of what could have gone wrong. To start us off we had to choose three words of objects around us that we would then be able to use in our animation, my group decided on the words pencil, orange and phone. Then because there were four of us in our group, we each had to come up with ideas, put them into a storyboard and present them to the group, we then decided who's was the best to use for the animation, this was my storyboard.

                                      

                                      

Every one in the group agreed that this was a good idea, so we incorporated it into our final film. Along with another idea from another person in the team. Once we had sorted out what we were going to do we did our final Storyboard, which looks like this.

This Storyboard incorporates about 3 of the 4 ideas the group had, this is because we could not agree on whose idea was the best so we decided to do a mixture of the three best ones and came up with the idea for this clip.

Once we had set up the lighting and the objects we started to take the photos, then move the objects,take another photograph and moved the objects again etc. We did this until we got to the end of the storyboard. My main responsibility in the group was camera and lighting operator. I set up the camera and tripod and helped put the lighting on the right setting, as a group I believe that we worked very well together. I think this because when we were planning, executing and editing we all communicated and agreed on what we should do and what the end product should look like. There were little to no arguments in the group. When we started uploading and editing the short clip I became the editor and editor's assistant when someone else took over, because of my lack of knowledge in the editing programme. Whilst other people in the group got the sound clips me and another person were working on the timing and the overall look of the clip. To edit we used Adobe Premier software, we uploaded all of the photographs and then added the times and sounds and strung it together to make the 10 second clip move. 

When everyone had finished we showed it to the class and this is what they had to say ...

• The sound effects for the pencil were good. (Screaming)
• All the sound effects were good, it gave the clip more depth and character 
• The speech bubble we made for the pencil was good and added to the story
• It was good that we were able to stand the phone up and move the swords
• The lighting was a bit off and needed to be sorted out, it fluctuated to much

Most of these points as you can see are in favour of our 10 second stop motion animation, there is one point that we could work on; I agree the lighting needs to be sorted out but as first runs go I'd say it worked pretty well. I'm not sure as to why the lighting was fluctuating considering we used studio lighting in the making of this clip. I believe that the cause of the fluctuation is because we only used one studio light when we should have been using two. I think that this was a successful first run of a stop motion animation because it was a smooth moving animation and almost all of the feedback we got was positive, also because we used all of the props we said we did and the animation is exactly 10 seconds long just like it says in the brief.

E4 Idents

E4 Idents


Overview

E4 is one of the most original digital channels, successfully helping launch original TV shows. The research shows that the channel is mostly watched by woman aged between 16 and 34, however the channel says that they are the "entertainment destination for a cutting edge young audience." E4 says that there channel reaches 8.9 million people each month, they say that the shows they air are interesting to the younger generation. The target audience that they are trying to appeal to are predominantly young and upmarket, those people who are more likely to try out something new. The E4 channel does this very well in my eyes, not only do they have shows that appeal to the younger viewers they also have the shows that have been running for a long time that appeal to a different type of person. This is what keeps people watching this channel, they bring in new shows for the younger viewers but keep the most liked and popular ones from before. The E4 channel is very up to date, it keeps on moving with the times for instance, this channel has its own website which you can use to watch the shows that you missed or just to re-watch the ones you really liked. You can also see whats on the TV right now and you can play games and quizzes that relate to your favourite TV show.
E4 is a very successful channel because of all of these points.

Ident 1


This is a ten second Ident, an Ident is something that promotes TV channels. It usually tries to get across in a short amount of time what the channel is all about. In this Ident we see a man with a horse head singing a weird little tune, Ident could be short for the word identity therefore saying that the channel is funny yet odd. Ident's also have to have the channels logo somewhere in them. In this clip you can see it on the shield of the knight on the horse. I think that this Ident works very well because it is funny but weird at the same time and therefore I want to see what types of shows the channel has on. I think that the target audience for this Ident is guys aged about 16 plus. This is a good thing because most of the people that watch this channel are predominantly women, this Ident appeals to the male population. I would say this because of the knights and the castle in the background also the fact that it is a man that is singing. This Ident works well for the channel because of the kinds of shows they air, the shows are humorous but also very weird at times, which matches this Ident exactly.

Ident 2


This is a clip for an Ident for the channel E4. I believe that what this Ident is trying to say is that E4 has style and all women want to watch the channel, especially as 62% of the audience are woman aged 16 - 34. This Ident also makes the point that E4 air shows for guys as well, I say this because of the 'E4 Man' as they call him. It could also mean they air shows with music or they care about music because of the song that they sing. Once again you have the E4 logo in this Ident to show you which channel it's for, you can see it on the bottle of hairspray. It could also mean that E4 doesn't care what colour you are and wants you to come, watch and enjoy the shows that they air.

Ident 3



This clip is a 21 second Ident from the E4 channel. There are a lot of things going on in this Ident, for example, to start it off there are two teddy bears in an inflatable boat. They look like they are going fishing and then one gets pulled overboard and the other teddy bear tries to save him. This could mean that when you have a sinking feeling you should watch E4, it will help reel you back in to safety. The next main thing you see is a hairdressing chair, you then see the E4 channel logo come out of the hairdryer and sort of sit in the chair. This comes across to me as whatever you are doing E4 will be on your mind. 

Timeline of Stop Motion Animation

Persistence of Vision

Stop-motion animation is actually just stills of an object or person moving into a slightly different position in each frame. When you string all of the frames together at a high speed a phenomenon called persistence of vision occurs. This is when the human brain perceives these frames as a fluid motion. So in short, the eye retains images shown just for a millisecond, then when the next image is show the brain links them together so that after a few images are shown you get this effortless fluid motion.
When shooting stop-motion the average frames per second or FPS is 24 just as it is in film. You can use 12 FPS and still get a good effect but it can sometimes turn out a bit jumpy, if you use anything below 12 FPS you will defiantly get a jumpy effect. In some resent films they have been using cameras that can shoot 48 FPS, some people say that it looks weird and doesn't work, others say it makes the movie better.
Before digital cameras people used movie cameras to make stop-motion animation, instead of exposing the film multiple times you just exposed one frame then wound the camera on. After you had developed the film you then put it on a reel and wind up the projector so that the film moves fast and your brain can kick in with the persistence of vision.

Object Animation

The earliest form of stop-motion is called Object Animation, this is when you photograph an object and then move it ever so slightly and then photograph it again. This may take a while to finish but it is one of the simplest forms of stop-motion, at least until you start moving several different objects at once, because if you forget to move something and only find out when you load the stills into a movie making software you have to go back and do it all over again.


The very first version of Object Animation was a short film called Humpty Dumpty Circus which was produced in 1898 by Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton but has unfortunately since been lost. The next object animation/stop-motion short film was released in 1902 by Thomas Edison (you know him, the guy who invented the lightbulb), it was called Fun in the Bakery Shop. Looking at this short you can actually see that there is a mixture of stop-motion and object animation used, sometimes filming will be stopped and the actors would freeze in there position. Then an object would then be placed or moved in the frame and the filming would continue, this would make it look like the object just magically appear in the film.



This is an advert that uses Object Animation, I think it works pretty well, it is funny and interesting. Technically this is good, you can see that it is a smooth flowing advert so I'm guessing they used 24 FPS. There is a little glitch shall we say, when the Doritos put themselves back in the bag if you look at the sofa you can see it change slightly. This is something called continuity, when something changes or moves when it shouldn't. You can tell this is a homemade video, I think that this would help sell the product because it is a person sitting at home eating and enjoying some Doritos, rather than an overly processed video of someone in a non realistic setting. I believe that it is a good use of Object Animation.

Puppet Animation

After Object Animation came Puppet Animation. Even though they were technically still objects, puppets were easier to manipulate and give character to. This would be because they were made out of wire, clay and sometimes even fur or hair. The puppets are easier to give character to because you can change and move there faces into any shape or emotion you want.



This is an example of puppet animation, it was filmed in 1964, and then re-coloured later. You can tell they are puppets and you can see them move differently, but it doesn't really matter because its the story you are more interested in. I think that telling these stories using puppets is a very good idea because it will mostly be children watching this and children play with dolls and puppets so they can relate to what the stories are trying say. Like the guy who stole all the tarts, the moral is not to steal. I think that it is very clever how they have made these puppets and then made them do all these different actions. It must have taken a lot of time and patience to get them just right. 


This is a short clip from a film from A Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton. He uses puppets for his stop-motion films. He has done this before and it makes the characters move in a very interesting way. These characters live in a place called Halloween Town, in fact almost all of Tim Burton's films are weird and creepy. This is a good thing because they way that he uses Puppet Animation makes most of the characters have a creepy appearance, in the way they move.
There are several film makers we would not have if Puppet animation never can to light. Willis O’Brien, Ray Harryhausen, Jan Švankmajer, The Brothers Quay and Henry Selick just to name a few. We have seen some great things from these film makers and there will hopefully be more to come from some of them. Most of these film makers actions went on to become something people use and are familiar with today, specail effects.

Pixilation

This stop motion technique uses real people instead of puppets or objects, but in doing so it becomes slightly more difficult than other forms of stop motion. This is because when you make pixilation animation and you use real people they can be very unpredictable and are not capable of staying the the exact same position for very long. To produce Pixilation Animation the actor or actress would have to stay still for long periods of time while you photograph them, then they will have to move slightly in whatever direction they need to then stop so you can re-photograph them. They would have to do this for a very long time sometimes hours with no breaks, this is because it would be very unlikely to be in the exact same position as you were before you went for a break. 


This is a video I came across, it uses pixilation animation. There are various different scenarios in this video for example when they are falling or when they are in Paris, they did not forget the little details like the flash for the camera or the clouds passing by them when they were falling. When I'm watching this video I can clearly see some continuity issues like when the two people are walking to the bike, if you watch the tree on the left closely when the two people move over it, the green fabric gets ruffled and moves and then they obviously try to put it back in to place because it changes again despite this little glitch I think this is a very good example of Pixilation Animation.


This is a version of Pixilation Animation from 1952, considering the time that this was done I think that it is a very good piece of stop-motion animation. I think that doing this short film in Pixilation animation enhances the weirdness about two guys fighting over a nice smelling flower. When you first watch this short film you might not understand exactly why two guys are fighting over a flower but if you watch it till the end you realise that this short film has an underlining theme of religion. I believe that the moral of this story is to love thy neighbour, then again I could be wrong and it could be about saving plants and trees, but as this short clip can show you if you don't pay attention then you can destroy the thing you are fighting for.

Claymation

Claymation is the most well known version of stop-motion, it has been in around since 1908. The Sculptors Nightmare was the first recorded use of Claymation, the next was four year later when the Modeling Extraordinaire came out. These film became a regular thing after that, this was because of a little invention called plasticine made by an art teacher in the UK. Plasticine is a non-drying clay that can be re-shaped over and over again, because it was so easy to manipulate and sculpt people used it more and more, instead of just moving the objects over and over again. Once people realised how easy it was to move and shape they started to use it to cover wire skeletons and move about. These wire skeletons are called armature. You can see this in various different Claymation films and tv shows.


This is a clip that uses Claymation in the form I just explained. Someone made a wire skeleton and then just put plasticine over it and made faces and clothes. I find it fascinating that people have the time and patience for this type of work, it takes hours. Just moving the models little by little and then photographing them over and over again, even after that if you mess up you would have to start from the beginning because there is no way you can just place them back in the same positions as they were and carry on. This is an professional level of Claymation and it works very well.



From this Claymation clip you can see once again some very good manipulation of plasticine. I think that this is a very interesting clip, this is because even though you know that the blue plasticine is meant to be water but you can also argue that it could be something else because of the shape that it take being solid and square. There are many different things that you can take from this clip but I think the main one is that Claymation can be fun and interesting even though it take a long time to make.