D&AD Shutterstock // Saturday meeting

Overcoming the Monster

We revisited this brief and talked through our ideas again while sketching things out.

I said that a cloud doesn't look dissimilar from a brain, and touching on that could really make the animation effective. It could turn into a cloud to represent the bad vibes that it passes on to the heart, and to touch on the weather element by raining down.

Tamar discussed with me how the heart could be giving off rays of distress or radiance, just something to communicate the emotions.

We talked through how plants could grow, and that could tie into the weather - when the weather is bad, the plants are ruined. When the weather gets better, the plants thrive and grow. 

We went back and forth between the order of the weather and if there were too many stages -
Rain > plants grow in the heart
Heavy rain > heart gets flooded
Sun comes out > flood dries up, plants start to grow again
Sun gets too hot > plants die
A healthy balance of rain and sunshine > plants grow back and they engulf the brain, which overcomes the monster.

We kept touching on the fact that we don't have very long to get the message across, but we also are very aware that overcoming a monster means that it is not easy, and there has to be a battle. We also don't want to create some kind of story that is saying that overcoming depression is simple.

A thought on the side I had:
One little plant could survive and it could be something recurring through all the stories to band them together.

Storyboard

The final sequence that we came up with. We are a little aware that we may have to shorten some parts or get rid of them so that it fits into the time frame, but we want to at least try it.

Tragedy

We did a bit of brainstorming for 'tragedy', as we gave up on 'rags to riches' as it seemed too complicated to produce. We seemed to be thinking in too literal terms, meaning we haven't come up with anything interesting. We talked about natural disasters, which just seemed to generic and impersonal unlike our other stories.

We discussed doing comedy instead of tragedy - Tamar said there is pressure to be funny but I disagree. I think that making something really personal that is humorous would be easier than tragedy.


Rebirth

We started to properly talk about how the animation will look. As we want to go with a sketchy naive style, I have the fear of it looking too messy. We are a little unsure on how to draw the buildings.

As a start, using an oil pastel I drew some bins and a very basic city backdrop to try out.

Next we drew out the jacket - specifically, Tamar did as I liked how she drew the figure previously. I scanned in one that we liked and tweaked it a little. We then printed out copies to draw the pattern onto, but realised it would be easier to do blocks of patterns and lay the jacket on top of them in illustrator.

 I showed Tamar the legs that I created to animate the character walking, and we agreed that they could look a lot better. We printed them off and Tamar tried out drawing them in a more stylised way.

We agreed that they could work.

A Clockwork Orange // Book cover research

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/graphic-designer-marinus-schepen-designs-visual-identity-for-northwestern-universitys-graduate-exhibition

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/things-the-best-of-the-stuff-weve-been-sent-this-month-160316

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/linda-brownlee-bookshelf-200416

 

http://flavorwire.com/newswire/penguin-essentials-releases-10-gorgeous-new-cover-designs-for-classic-novels

A Clockwork Orange // Story synopsis

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/clockworkorange/summary.html

It takes place in a futuristic city governed by a repressive, totalitarian super-State. In this society, ordinary citizens have fallen into a passive stupor of complacency, blind to the insidious growth of a rampant, violent youth culture. The protagonist of the story is Alex, a fifteen-year-old boy who narrates in a teenage slang called nadsat, which incorporates elements of Russian and Cockney English. Alex leads a small gang of teenage criminals—Dim, Pete, and Georgie—through the streets, robbing and beating men and raping women. Alex and his friends spend the rest of their time at the Korova Milkbar, an establishment that serves milk laced with drugs, and a bar called the Duke of New York.

Alex and his gang leave the Korova Milkbar to go on a crime spree that involves mugging, robbery, a gang fight, auto theft, breaking and entering, and rape. 

The novel goes on to delve into violence between the group of friends, resulting in the boys turning against Alex. Alex gets arrested for one of the crimes, as Dim hits him in the eye with a chain so he can't get away.

Alex is sentenced to fourteen years in prison, which is difficult and harsh. He later takes an interest in religion and the chaplain, and reads the Old Testament which is full of sex, drinking and fighting to his pleasure.

One day he kills a cellmate which results in being the first candidate for an experimental treatment called Ludovico's Technique - a form of brainwashing by associative learning. He is injected by a substance which makes him sick, followed by being forced to watch violent footage. This makes him associate violence with nausea and headaches.

The process takes two weeks to complete, after which the mere thought of violence has the power to make Alex ill. Alex can no longer enjoy classical music, which he has always associated with violence. The State considers Alex’s successful treatment a victory.

After two years in prison, Alex is released, a harmless human being incapable of vicious acts. Alex finds he’s not only harmless but also defenseless, as his earlier victims begin to take revenge on him. His old friend Dim and an old enemy are police officers now, and they drive him to a field where they beat him. Alex wanders to a nearby cottage and knocks on the door; the man living there lets him in and gives him food and a room. Alex recognizes him as the man whose wife he raped, but the man does not recognize Alex, who wore a mask that night.

This man, is a political dissident and tries to exploit Alex to incite public outrage against the State. Alex, however, is tired of being exploited and berates the man in nadsat, which arouses his suspicion, who still remembers the strange language spoken by the teenagers who raped his wife. They lock Alex in an apartment and blast classical music through the wall, hoping to drive Alex to suicide so they can blame the government.

Alex hurls himself out of a window and ends up in hospital. State doctors undo Ludovico’s Technique and restore Alex’s old vicious self in exchange for Alex’s endorsement. Back to normal, Alex assembles a new gang and engages in the same behavior as he did before prison, but he soon begins to tire of a life of violence. After running into his old friend Pete, who is now married and living a normal life, Alex decides that such a life is what he wants for himself. His final thoughts are of his future son.

-

http://www.shmoop.com/clockwork-orange/part-1-chapter-1-summary.html

"What's it going to be then, eh?" That's how the book opens, and you'll find this question dispersed throughout; it will even close with it, coming full circle. The significance, you ask? Well, we like to think of it as a "marker" of some significance. See if you can figure it out before we tell you.

Alex and his entourage are drinking "milk-plus," which means milk laced with some type of hallucinogen or other drug. Alex describes the milk-plus experience as one that either gives you a nice fireworks-in-the-sky kind of buzz, or a lot of courage and strength.

The entourage has a lot of "deng," or money, so there's no real need to get "ultra-violent" with an old guy or gal in the alley for the dough. After all, as they say, money isn't everything.

Alex describes his entourage as dressed in the "heighth of fashion," which, at the time, means a pair of black tights, a big belt, a cropped jacket without lapels but with big, built-up shoulders, a hat, and great boots for kicking.

Alex observes three girls at the bar also dressed in the "heighth of fashion," what with expensive colorful wigs on, makeup to match, and long black dresses with badges displaying the names of men they've had sex with before they turned fourteen attached. That's right, you heard him, age fourteen.

The milk-plus starts to kick in for our boys. How do we know? Well, when you start to hear voices moving from one part of the bar to another, "flying up to the ceiling and then swooping down again and whizzing from wall to wall," and when you "feel the knives in the old moloko starting to prick," you just know.

Brief 08 // Penguin Design Award

I have decided to do this brief, as illustration and book covers are my kind of thing and suit my work. I very much enjoyed last years brief, and feel I've learnt a lot since then so would like to put my skills to the test.

The books to chose from?
'How to be a Woman' by Caitlin Moran (Non fiction)
'The Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess (Fiction)

I've decided to design the cover for A Clockwork Orange. At first I wanted to steer clear of it, as it has been incredibly overdone, but I have been doing a lot of lighthearted, pleasant work recently and I want to challenge myself by doing something new, something quite dark.

Brief

The daring and electrifying book that inspired one of the most notorious films ever made.
‘What we were after was lashings of ultra violence’ 

In this nightmare vision of youth in revolt, fifteen-year-old Alex and his friends set out on a diabolical orgy of robbery, rape, torture and murder. Alex is jailed for his teenage delinquency and the State tries to reform him - but at what cost? 

A dystopian horror, a black comedy, an exploration of choice, A Clockwork Orange is also a work of exuberant invention which created a new language for its characters. 

‘Every generation should discover this book’ Time Out
‘Still delivers the shock of the new . . . a red streak of gleeful evil’ Martin Amis 

A Clockwork Orange is as dazzling and inventive to new readers today as it was when it was first published half a century ago. The story is well known both in celluloid and print so it is essential to come at it from a fresh angle. Try to design a new cover for a new generation of readers, avoiding the obvious clichés. Originality is key. 

Your cover design needs to include all the cover copy as supplied and be designed to the specified design template (B format, 198mm high x 129mm wide, spine width 10mm). 

What the judges are looking for:
We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover must be effective on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting. It also needs to be able to work on screen for digital retailers such as Amazon. 

The winning design will need to:
have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
be competently executed with strong use of typography
appeal to a contemporary readership
show a good understanding of the marketplace
have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against
be able to sit on the shelves of a supermarket or ebook store as easily as it sits on those of more traditional bookshops 

Copyright must be cleared for all images used in your cover design.

Now that I have missed the Penguin design award deadline, this has turned into a personal brief - I couldn't make time for it whilst doing D&AD.

D&AD // Shutterstock - Tuesday meeting

Rebirth

Building on our discussion last week about the idea of a 'funky jacket' lifting someones mood and confidence, we both said again how this idea excited us. Tamar said that it could give us the opportunity to be really creative visually with patterns throughout.

We started with initial sketches of how it could look, and how the character could be drawn. The sketches below were drawn by Tamar.

We talked about how the background should look and if there should be a street or just nothing at all. We agreed on the idea of the person walking down a dark street before stumbling upon a jacket either in a shop or on the road.

Tamar said the character should be quite rough and cartoon like, with the jacket being really big on them. As they walk with it on, they could grow bigger and bigger and step over things.

I had the idea of the hair growing and getting colourful, and the jacket changing colour throughout to show it's power and make it seem kind of magic. Tamar agreed and said rather than just colour the jacket could change patterns.

Rebirth storyboard

We have both created the final storyboard together, discussing it as we went along. We are aware that it can only be under 20 seconds, so we need to keep in mind how many details we put in.

What we discussed as we drew it out:

• How should the background be - just shapes or realistic buildings? We both said it could be quite abstract, so as not to detract form the character's journey.
• The suit - should it just be a box? It doesn't have to be realistic, and not having arms may make the animating easier. This is something we are going to try out.
• Should the background be neat and the character scruffy? all neat or scruffy?
• Is the person a man or a woman - does this matter - does there need to be a clear gender?
• The person grows and gets powerful and steps over buildings then returns to normal size and with original colour - but is still rebirthed.

Overcoming the Monster

We moved on to Overcoming the Monster, so we can stay on track. We want to create all the storyboards before moving onto the actual animations.

Some independent brainstorming I've done for Overcoming the monster. My ideas are based around metaphorical imagery, much like I've looked at in my research. It seems like an effective way of putting a story into simple imagery.

We discussed how mental illness could be symbolised in a creative way (and in a way that doesn't offend). What could the monster be?

Ideas we both agreed we especially liked - 

• the heart and the brain against each other - this could be like they are fighting and the brain is controlling how the heart feels, even though the heart wants to be happy.
• a watering can trying to bring dying weeds back to life, which works in the end after a battle between them. (but what is the monster here??)
• using weather as a metaphor for personal struggles - the sun is trying to break through the rain and storms.

Together we sketched and talked through some of these ideas in a more visual format. We talked through how plants could be growing out of a head, which need to be watered to grow. But through this we wondered if this really stuck to the plot of there being a monster.

We then discussed how we could morph some of the ideas together: the brain and heart could be against eachother, an idea we both thought was quite conceptual. But the weather could also be involved - the brain could rain down on the heart.

Or perhaps a dark kind of fluid could drip from the brain into the heart from a tap, to symbolise the bad thoughts and feelings.  We agreed to come back to this in our next session with fresh eyes.

D&AD Shutterstock // Thursday meeting

Me and Tamar met today, and talked through some initial ideas. We brainstormed together about what kind of stories we could use.

I showed Tamar the animations that I've researched, and we discussed how effective they were.
We talked about what kind of visuals we want to create- abstract, people, detailed, real...
Some ideas would be hard with an abstract shape approach, ie rags to riches is difficult to show in a simple way.

Developing ideas 

Overcoming the Monster

With Tamar I talked her through some ideas I have, some lighthearted and others quite serious topics.

• student loans, or debt that is finally paid off by the end, or abolished somehow
• monster under the bed - a humorous take on a childish fear that is overcome when somebody grows up
• diet, gym... battling the monster that is a healthy diet or a trip to the gym that has been put off
• death - dealing with a death of a loved one, or recovering from grief
• a college deadline  - dealing with a heavy workload that finally pays off
• mental illness and how it is a controlling monster

Tamar said that some of these just seem a bit typical and a little trivial. She liked the idea of doing something with the topic of mental illness.
Depression and anxiety are definitely monsters people struggle to overcome. We talked about how this has the potential to be meaningful and capture peoples everyday emotion - something the brief points out.

Rebirth

Next we discussed ideas for rebirth, most being quite lighthearted and more of a day-to-day take on it.

• brushing teeth - how cleanliness can make you feel completely refreshed and like new
• good nights sleep
• cup of coffee in the morning
• quitting smoking

We agreed that none of these were very exciting or that creative.

Something Tamar thought of as a lighthearted take on this subject could be that somebody finds a 'funky' jacket - when they put it on, they are rebirthed. They become happy, or better, or just more confident.
I think that visually this could be really impressive, and the way it is relatable is that a lot of people buy clothes so that they feel better or look better, which in a sense is being birthed again.

Rags to riches

• an adopted pet
• gentrification - a more controversial and political take on the plot
• losing weight and getting fit

I struggled to come up with good ideas for this plot. When me and Tamar talked about it, we thought about how a character could invent something that changes the world. They then become rich and get lifted out of the slum they lived in. We discussed how this may be a little too complex for us to create.

-

We planned out our time, and how long we have. We have under 5 weeks until the deadline, and to start off with we will meet once, twice a week if possible as we are quite busy with other things at the moment.

15/2 - do storyboard for Rebirth, start Overcoming the Monster
22/2 - do storyboard for Overcoming the Monster.
start third idea, do storyboard.
start visuals for Rebirth
29/2 - finish visuals for Rebirth, start visuals for Overcoming the Monster
7/3 - create visuals for third animation
14/3 - finishing touches, create description video

To do: storyboards

Next meeting: tuesday afternoon.

OUGD603 // Peer lead crit

I explained briefly mine and Tamar's ideas for the Shutterstock collaboration brief. I said how I don't feel extremely confident about the animation side of it. It was hard to get feedback as I didn't have anything visual to show at this stage. Someone asked about Tamar's ideas so I explained what she had contributed.

I gave Melissa some feedback on her initial design for the book 'How to Be a Woman' for the Penguin design award. Her design was an illustration of the author's dress and shoes, so I suggested to not use these as they may be misunderstood as a stereotypical way of telling women how to be female, as the point of the book is there isn't just one way.

D&AD: Shutterstock // Animation

I'm completely new to moving image and so is Tamar, so I want to source out some story-telling animation that could help us see how it can be executed effectively.

Glory Halal
https://www.behance.net/gallery/33227811/GLORY-HALAL-ANIMATION

These very short animated gifs each tell a story in a simple format, such as 'Freedom, ruin' - this seems to be illustrating how jobs pay, but they keep you prisoner. The effective thing about these animations is that the scarce amount of words set off the subject which then tells itself quite clearly through the really stripped down imagery.

These gifs do their job but they don't tell a proper story, and through being a very simple loop not much changes like in a plot.

The History of the Treadmill
http://www.yukaidu.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al-30Z-aH8M

This animation tells a longer and more complicated story: the history of treadmills. This means that there are more dimensions and layers to it.

The colour scheme is very restricted, which sets quite a haunting mood. The black shadows overlaying the bright colours give it a dark feel. Colour choice is very important and it has been effectively done so that it can keep your attention throughout.

I have noticed that the animation is very smooth as it progresses from scene to scene, as the features morph into each other. This shows skill and makes the video more pleasing to watch.

California Inspires Me: Mark Mothersbaugh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7BVajI3j44&index=1&list=PLei6MuTjkmhYTJrsofI0tVDsLip4FX3h7

"The first seven years of my life I was in a fog. I remember the day I got my first pair of glasses and it was an incredible day, and I saw what the roof of a house looked like, and the top of trees. Before that I'd only known the part of the tree in our front yard that I ran into when we were playing."

"My teacher said "You're drawing trees better than I do." and I went home that night and dreamt that I was gonna be an artist."

"We weren't observing evolution, we were observing de-evolution and so we decided to write music about that."

This is probably one of my favourite animations I have looked at. There is a strict colour scheme of only pink, blue, cream and black. They can be seen all together in almost every frame. This is effective because it creates a strong playful and nostalgic atmosphere that perfectly fits the story, which starts off as set in the 50s.
Each scene is very simple in layout, often with a blank background, such as when the figure is walking. The figure then morphs into the full band through a very abstract style of morphing where the shapes get stretched out and then pulled back in. This looks really impressive and makes it a lot more watchable.


It's Nice That x HTC - The Pursuit of Brilliance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7BVajI3j44&index=1&list=PLei6MuTjkmhYTJrsofI0tVDsLip4FX3h7

"I'm really happy that we chose brilliance over perfection. I like brilliance much more, because its more expansive, and it feels like imperfect things can be quite brilliant."

"It's easy to have an idea, and it's kind of easy to execute something. To get from one to the other is the difficult bit. So I'd say the journey is the hard bit."

"I believe that if you do the same thing over and over again you become very efficient at doing it, but you miss the spark. And rarely you can create greatness with a rigid process."

"I think that if I start a project with the feeling or expectation that this has to be brilliant then I'm never gonna start so I think its forgetting about the end point and what it has to be and just discovering the process."

These small animations are really simple but effective in their storytelling. They are entertaining to watch, as there are strong concepts behind each of them that causes the objects to come alive.
The worm in the fruit transforming into a lightbulb is very clever, as it clearly communicates the effectiveness of something imperfect.




California Inspires Me: Rashida Jones
https://vimeo.com/138233056

"LA had an idyllic hippy meets suburban vibes"

"My parents were hippy types"

"I had friends that were everywhere and looked like everything"

"He would bring his snake called Muscles"

"I did not want to be in entertainment in any way and that was sort of a conscious rebellion"

"It took me till I was a teenager and in college to really realise that it was what I wanted to do"

"Northern California is the grown up sibling who is in college and studying the great philosophers"

"Southern California is discovering new bands and hanging out at the beach"

This story is told in simple terms through a breezy, sunny Californian animation. The features are very neat vector shapes that have only a hint of dimension through the differing shades used.


Japan Now - advertisement for festival
https://vimeo.com/109566146

This animation is extremely minimal and it is hard to understand what is happening. However, the colours are soft and well chosen, and the movement is very smooth and professional. The lack of direction creates a sense of mystery around it.


These animations and stories have really expanded my knowledge of how an animation is put together and how much thought goes into the different aspects. They can be anywhere on the spectrum between minimal and unclear, to very obvious. I have learnt that I need to create a small colour scheme so that all the animations fit together.