Film Animation Shoot - The Crescendo Step

Well reading week is over. Except for me it was animation week. I had this weekend booked in the camera animation room. So I spent the week preparing, which meant drawing everything for my movie and testing those drawings. And with everything as prepared as I could be, I shoot my movie on the Senior Oxberry Camera that our school has.

This animation shoot, on an animation stand with a real film camera is really the centerpiece of the first year of animation at Concordia. It took me roughly twelve hours to do my animation of roughly 45 seconds. It was extremely stressful, tedious, nerve racking. It was the weekend, so my only resource if something went wrong were my teachers phone numbers (which I only needed to use once). And we are working on film. You really only get one shot with film. You need to know what you are doing, and execute it right a few hundred times.

I am getting pretty close to understanding why that ordeal was worth going through. I'm not really sure how my film will turn out, and I am really not all that concerned with it. I'm only now recognizing that it really is my first "film" animation, the keyword being film. I shot my whole movie with my digital camera, yet I'm certain it didn't produce the same experience that I had when I shoot on the massive camera.

I think the key difference is that when you make a film animation, the only way that you will actually get a result that is close to your intention is if you have a deep understanding of what you are doing, and what is going on. Working with computers, you can often stumble your way through most of the process without ever really proving that you understand all of the basic elements.

What I think I can take away from the the experience is that film animation, on film, is not really a practical method of making movies anymore. It is extremely tedious, strenuous, allows for no mistakes, and is really boring at times. Computers on the other hand hold none of that fuse, and make life much to easy for beginners. So hopefully a solid fundamental knowledge of the field, with this hands on medium will provide a solid understanding for what comes later.

Ok, picture time. Maybe when I am more lucid I will write more about the subject. The first images is of the folders that had my whole movie in them. And click through the photos to see more images in the picasa web album.








And my film is title "The Crescendo Step" if your wondering.

Kyler

Twitter

Hmmm....

Twitter at TED.

I wrote about twitter before, and now I almost feel like I need to reconsider.

I hadn't considered the time scale of twitter. It is always about what is happening right now. It isn't really a medium that is concerned with long term ideas. The archive is useful in terms of data mining, but it isn't a source of information by itself. It is all about what is going on in the world at this instant, and gathering that information through small amounts of text.

Still not quite convinced enough to actually start using it myself. But I think I understand it better.

Kyler

Joys of Learning

It is spring break and my friend lent me his juggling pins.

I have juggled for a really long time and am fairly skilled at it. However I never learned how to juggle pins.

Now what is so interesting about this is just how amazing the learning process is, and how clearly I can see it in this case.

The first day I simply learned how to throw one pin between my hands. I only practiced for about ten minutes and then stopped.

And then I waited till the next day and worked on two pins. About ten minutes again.

Waited till the next day, worked on two pins again, and sometimes threw in a third pin with really bad attempts. Again only practiced for about ten minutes.

Lo and behold, today I pick up the three pins, and with almost no difficulty am able to keep all three going for a few moments. I practiced again for about 10 minutes. Tomorrow I will be even better.

What is so amazing about this is that I think the fact is that you only need to practice something like this for a fairly brief period, and due to your ability to learn while sleeping, you will get better at it over time. As long as you don't attempt to rush learning, it can be done extremely easily.

Kyler

Master Craftsman

A goal has been forming in my mind.

The idea of a master craftsman is really old, goes back a long long time. Someone who knows their craft inside and out. Can answer every questions and knows everything there is to know. And they are also extremely physically skilled. They can see minute details in their work and have a great sense of feeling for what they do. They know the sound of their tools and the texture of their work.

A real master craftsman.

That is what I want to be.

But the question is how can I be a master craftsman in this modern era? I work both physically, yet also, to a great extent on the computer. What does it mean to be a master craftsman on a computer. Is it even possible?

I'm not sure I have ever met one yet. My 3d modeling teacher at ACAD was pretty close. I'm sure there are quite a few high up in the industry, but beyond that, it might be few and far between.

I think I am on the right track. When I think about doing things on the computer I feel that I really get a sense of the whole picture. I feel like I could go into a lot of depth into what computers are doing when I am using them. To me a computer isn't really a black box, where I put something in and something magic comes out. And in many of the same ways I described craftsman as having a "feel" for their work, I get the sense that I have developed a similar type of feel for computers. I know how to crash them, or how not to. I know what to ask of them and what not to.

Hopefully this whole craft with someday be figured out better and all of the little annoyances will be ironed out.

Maybe later what I say here will be more clear.

Kyler

New Drawings

I haven't added any new drawings in while, there are a bunch of new ones in the Montreal Drawing Album

Here are the notable ones. Most of this stuff is just copying anatomy books, or drawing from life, though we did start doing some basic character design recent. All the stick figures are preparation for my final animation.

Kyler

Creativity Again

Another TED talk to watch if you like.
Elizabeth Gilbert On Genius

The point which I would like to discuss about this video is that Elizabeth suggests that the existence of some sort of creativity daemon or "genius" is a powerful way of separating a creative person from their own creative process. I agree that this is a very useful way to proceed, but I think this should only be taken as a metaphor for what is actually going on.

There is no "genius" in the walls of your studio who can help you do work. There is just you and all of your experience. The experience is everything that makes you who you are. Every class you have taken, every sentences you have said, every thought you have thought, every skill you have, everything you have ever seen or heard, everything you have read, everything you like and dislike, everything is you.

Now you could try and be deliberately creative and force some work out of yourself. Or you could just let yourself work and let all of your experience guide you. It will feel weird because it is just going to happen, you can't really control it.

But there is no magic going on, just you being you not trying to get in your own way.

If you actually understand what I just wrote about, I will be very impressed.

Kyler

The Creativity Recipe

I was looking at this website for a design school. My brother was pointing out how it represents a trend where design is becoming much more mainstream as a field to be educated in. If you look around the site you will see all sorts of people being creative and doing creative things.

The images on the website consist of people working in groups, using post it notes, tons and tons of diagrams representing things. It all looks immensely creative.

And then I looked at this. It is the school's manifesto.

But written on a napkin.

But it isn't just written on a napkin. The real story behind this image was that there was a whole design process that was going on where they designed the manifesto. There was surely a lot of meetings to figure out what the school was all about and what they want to do. And then they had to design how it would be written on the napkin, and find the person with the best handwriting. And then they had to find a photographer and but it next to a cup of coffee because that is what creative people drink, and good ideas come up at the coffee shop.

So what the napkin actually tells me is that these people simply want to appear creative. They used a cliche to represent how creative they are.

The whole website just seems like lots of talk, and I think that is what a lot of art, design and everything is, a lot of talk.

So I guess I'd better get out and do something or else I will be a hypocrite.

Kyler