At the beginning of this project, both me and my partner had the same idea of having the theme set under water and with the clients logo being SubTv, the word submerged instantly came to mind. We envisioned starting above water, before submerged deep under the sea.
After the workshop with Mario, as a pair, me and my partner created a project treatment using the examples given by Mario as a template. The images embedded in the PowerPoint were taken from mood boards created on Pinterest, independent projects we had both separately worked on, and experiments we had conducted for the SubTv ident. Through these images we hoped to help our audience visually understand our process and what the end product would look similar to.
We kept our word count down to a minimum, as we wanted the main focus to be on the visuals. The written aspects were included to help us stay focused on verbal explanations when presenting to the client rather than anything else.
At first I saw this task as a way to solely communicate to our client our ideas, mediums, theme etc. but throughout this process I was able to visually lay out our plans, helping us make important decisions regarding material choices, software we wanted to utilise and how both our very different art styles would look together.
After the treatment, we began to experiment with different mediums and techniques, getting as creative as possible.
My first experiment came to me spontaneously, I was speaking to my partner about the project experiments, when I noticed his eyes looked similar to the shape of a fish. I had an idea to use a printer app to screen three pictures of his eye to create a boil. Once I had these photos, I took a paper cut out of a fish and edited the picture inside of the shape in after effects. I then edited the edge of the paper and the photo. I made each picture a different colour and edited them separately, before placing them on a timeline loop.
I found this experiment to be fun and freeing. I had no plan, no direction, just a faint idea and playing with materials and an editing software. I really liked the outcome but I preferred the process.
I knew I wanted to make a model to utilise and distort, so I made some quick sketches, considering different mediums and decided that using a stencil knife and paper could be an interest model to manipulate.
My second experiment followed on from my previous one, using a printer to scan paper cut outs of fish, moving them slightly and taking another. I added a few details in black ink so they would show up through the printer scan and made a black background to go behind to incorporate a grain effect.
The end product was not as I has expected but better. There was a slight movement from the boarders that was unintentional and added a fascinating appearance.
With this experiment I chose to work with shadows and lighting. I propped up a wooden slab to add texture to my background and then began to play with different angles and movements of the paper fish.
I attached the paper fish to a metal rod using hot glue gun and began to make the fish swim. I first began moving the fish with my hand but found the shadow from my hand disturbed the animation.
As an alternative I tied the rod onto my belt and adjusted the metal to make it move. It was challenging to keep the fish in frame and steady. In the video, I noticed that I had sometimes taken a little step back or stood on a slight angle. Whilst I did not particularly like the outcome, I knew that If I had the tools to better steady the fish, I could produced a similar aesthetic but neater.
Most times I like the hand-made feel but this experiment felt rushed due to the process.
I did however, learn how to sort the dragonFrame software after being away from it all summer and how to set up the camera and lighting. It was fun to not only experiment with my paper cut outs once more, but also to explore the technical side of creating a stop-motion.
We had the idea and experiments but a lack of foundation for our animation and so we worked together to complete a simplistic story board to work from.
I found it strange how interconnected we were and how easy I found the working process, our idea generating and planning went extremely well. After we had spoken intensely about our idea, we then began to make the props necessary for the ident, making sure to take inspiration from our previous experiments.
I decided to start on the boat, as I estimated that it would take the most time due to the technique in which I wanted to create it. Through these initial sketches, I solidified a shape for the boat and placement of the flag.
My research was conducted through looking at photography and making small notes in my sketchbook. Hoping that through these, I could narrow down my own style and aesthetics for the boat.
Having no prior experience drawing boats or the necessities in the design, I went at the creation blind. But I had fun doing something I was initially fearful of. I was able to explore processes and mediums I have rarely engaged with.
I soon solidified my design on Procreate and made a plan towards what materials I wanted to use. This enabled me to go into my wood workshop with a faint Idea of what I was creating and what machines I wanted to use.
Whilst I value experimenting and working with a lack of plan, the machines were all new to me and I knew I found find this challenging. adding on, the slot is only allocated for an hour.
I went into the workshop nervous. Nervous that the outcome would not be as I planned and nervous the machines would be extremely difficult to use. But I found it to be exciting, with so many possibilities. Taking a slab of wood and crafting a boat was possibly one of the most challenging but exhilarating experiences since start university.
The challenges I was met with was trying to figure out the machines, trying not shave the wood too much, and keeping the shape exact to my plan.
In the end I was extremely happy with the outcome and began hand sewing together the flag, hot gluing a button onto the hut and wrapping string around the flag pole.
When I first originally made the fabric for the flag, it was flimsy and when I moved it it wouldn’t stay still. I unsewed the fabric and added wire in between the two pieces, meaning I could bend the flag back and forward easily.
The paper man was made by my partner, I gave him the measurements and he used these to scale his cut out.
Once everything was put together, we began to film the animation through dragon frame, behind an orange back drop to act as a green screen.
I then moved onto another section me and my partner assigned me to, the angular fish. I first created a sketch on procreate, taking inspiration from the natural history museum and the many skeletons on display. I then bought a glass pane to layer over the paper print, before using clay to layer over the sketch, adding texture and a raised appearance.
This task took me serval days to complete and a lot of attention to detail but I found it therapeutic and enjoyed the process of making.
Once the skeleton structure was complete, I hand painted it with neon pink and white paint. This was not a time consuming task, however I did find it hard to decided where to place the neon highlights, as I knew I would be editing the colours on after effects soon later. I decided to trust my gut, and let the sculpture dry.
My partner completed the SubTv rock and then we were ready to shoot again. Moving the fish was a trivial task, as I had to move the tail, the bulb, the body and the head separately but it was worth while when watching the frames back. I favoured how natural the movement seemed, how lively it felt.
We then placed the video into after effects and began to edit the angular fishes colours. Our first attempt did not go as we wanted it to. The colours were plain and flat and lacked texture, so I took to separating the rock and angular fish and editing them separately. I began playing with one frame on procreate to get an understanding of the aesthetic I wanted. I made three versions, choosing which I favoured the most and using this as a guide towards the values regarding saturation, colour etc. I tried to match the rock to fit the colour scheme of the angular fish, favouring a similar colour value.
For the backgrounds, I took inspiration from my partners previous project where he made a paper cut out of a bird and used natural backgrounds as the shading within the gap.
I favoured the appearance of a natural background behind our animation and so I went on a walk to see if I could find anything I resonated with. A lake, pond or running water is what I gravitated towards the most as our theme was under water. However, I found myself taking pictures of shadows that the water created on different walls. Whilst I did not use them, it was fun to see what my brain found interesting.
I took a random pictures of swans, there were a couple and so I had multiple samples, and I found that when I swiped between them quickly, the water moved. I took three of them and zoomed in to get a boil effect. I took these onto after effects and began to mess with the different values. Then my partner took the file and also played around. In the end, it was something we had collaborated on and it turned out perfect for what we had in mind.
My second background needed to be darker, an almost eerie feeling and I wanted to be as experimental as possible. As a result, I took my acrylic paints and layered them on thick, blending the colours whilst they were not dry, patting them with a sponge or scraping at the surface with a knife or spoon, applying salt to the edges and seeing what textures I could force from the paints. It was a fun experiment, so I made three. I had no idea what I was going to do with them at this point, I was just enjoying the process of making and immersing myself in it.
I put each of them through the printer to be scanned. One of them in particular stood out to me and so I split it into three, playing with the values on procreate and adding different effects over the top of the original.
Whilst I had a positive experience, some may argue that not having a plan and using materials for the sake of testing is wasteful. But I can wholeheartedly disagree. These aspects are what I find to be fascinating, exciting. Because even if I did not use it for the particular thing I wanted it for, it is in itself art and will be used on a different section or time.
From my previous experiment, I made more paper cut outs and moved them in the stop-motion bay with a pen tool. This made the process a lot easier as my hands were sometimes too rough with the paper and would move the prop too far forward or too low down, this tool enabled me to be more precise and purposeful.
I had the orange backdrop and so it was exceptionally easy to black out on after effects, however I did not like the appearance. It looked flat and lacked texture. I wanted more noise. And so I tried the printer scan again.
I fell in love with the process but more importantly the appearance. The way it felt to me, how loud and chaotic the picture felt. How lonely. These were all words that I interpreted the deep sea to feel like. Not for its inhabitants but humans viewing it as an outsider. I like the idea that for us colours represent so much that we sometimes become blinded by the beauty of something due to uncomfortably. And you can find this riddled in our coding.
Once I had all my images sent through the printer to scan, I played the background behind them, forcing some of the lighter values forward into the bright white outline of the fish.
I can remember watching the loop over and over. Trying to capture how I felt and if it did in fact make me feel under water in the dark. I remember turning lights off and being sat in silence.
The audio was collaborated between both me and my partner. I worked on the music coming from “the fisherman’s radio” and my partner worked on the sound effects of the water. Once we had these audios chosen, we sat together and placed them in after effects, editing and distorting the sound as much as possible, adding fade ins and changing the audio levels.
We hit a few challenges when assorting audio to the project. Our first being a collaborating with a music student in another UAL university. At the beginning of the brief, we were given the opportunity to work with music students. We got to pick our choices and then our tutors assigned them to us. We reached out serval times but got no response and so we opted to doing it ourselves. We have both worked on music for our animations before but it was unfortunate to not have the musician we had chosen, as it fit perfectly.
Our next challenge, was trying to find what genre and vibe we now wanted. There are so many options within royalty free music, and this can be both a positive and negative. Having to sypher through so many different options can be overwhelming. For this reason, we narrowed down a genre by looking through our personalised albums on music platforms. Popular music we already resonated with and placing it alongside our project to understand what feel we wanted.
I did research by asking people who I know are in nature a lot, what music they like to listen to and this also helped inform my decision.
Once I found a genre, I began looking through platforms given by UAL that are full of royalty free music.
I encounter an issue when I would download music and there would be a watermark, having to find another sound and hoping that it didn’t have a watermark. I finally found an artist that you didn’t need a subscription for and it was free to the public for use.
Me and my partner sat down together, working with the audio in after effects until we were happy that the visuals and audio matched to our contentment.
Overall, I had such a good time completing this task. I favoured collaborating with someone who had a drastically different art style and meeting them in the middle when we fell upon different ideas. I am extremely grateful that we had the same theme in mind and we got the opportunity to play and experiment with our work within this project as vastly as we did.
Whilst our story line may not have been complex or contained a plethora of twists, our process contained so much heart and enjoyment and play.
I learnt so much through this project, it was fantastic.
PADLET LINK
https://artslondon.padlet.org/ebarker0120242/submerged-czwpjhr5krw698in
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