Talking 'bout my animation...

To America!

2010-07-29T05:21:00.000-07:00

... And here's the finished product:

2010-07-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

I'm still playing around with that background inbetween doing bits of animation, trying to achieve more of the effect I want. I'm much happier with this version, using a photographic background to the tent (after all that work drawing a tent, grr). Also using a Petrushka-themed paper I found for the stage.

2010-07-05T03:24:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with the character's shapes and proportions, having decided they're too normal looking and wanting them to be a bit more grotesque and strange.

Here's what I've so far (for the Moor, the Ballerina and Petrushka):

2010-07-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

So... yeah.

I hate when that happens: you've got all your seperate elements working fine, then you put a few together and get something different from what you expected.

I mean, this looks fine, except it's too clean-cut and bright. That really wasnt the intention.

I think it's the bright, pastel colours of the Petrushka puppet against the background. I might have to do some re-colouring on him.

Also possibly the faintness of the outlines? Perhaps if they were heavier, the jointed puppet nature would be more obvious?

Oh, I did replace the stage surrounds with speaker stacks here, which I think works better.

Flash is not my friend today...

2010-07-02T22:18:00.000-07:00

... So while I wait for it to sort itself out/crash I'll say abit about how I've been colouring the characters and scenery.

I wanted lots of pattern and detail, and I happen to have a big bag of bits of nce paper I've collected over the years which get used in the collages i do (kathrynrosamillerart.co.uk).

So, I scan a selection in and do some preliminary work in a graphics program. I decide which patterns would go where on the characters' clothes, and usually play around with the colour balance and saturation and stuff. When I've got a rough representation I import the lines and colour seperately into Flash and start neatening everything up, adding shading etc.

2010-07-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

This is the background I've created for the main part of the video - the performance of the puppets in this Big Top/puppet theatre style marques.

It's pretty heavily based on Petrushka again - the starry background; the stage surrounds etc are based directly on the ballet sets. I drew the structure of the tent by hand and scanned it in, out and the colouring is a mixture of painting within Flash and images and patterns I've imported, vectorised and played around with.

I'm not sure this isnt too much like the ballet set, though... considering the puppet characters that are going to be in this setting are also very heavily based on Petrushka, it might all be a bit too much. I want a mix of the ballet with other elements. Like some rock n roll imagery.

At the moment the only incongruous element is the collection of lanterns hanging from the roof, which I like...

I'm thinking of changing a couple of elements, like maybe replacing the stage surrounds with speaker stacks or something.

2010-07-01T07:14:00.001-07:00

... And here's the other two:

Rather than fit out the puppet band with exact representations of the instruments on the track (guitar, bass, violin and drums) I decided to run with the Petrushka-Russian-folky angle and did of a bit of research.

So Petrushka is on balalaika, the Moor is on hardingfere (okay, that's essentially a violin anyway, plus it's Bulgarian. But I couldn't find an interesting-looking Russian bowed string instrument :)), the Conjurer has a military-style side-snare and the Ballerina is on bass domra.

Some thought went into that... I wanted the connection to the more conventional instruments to be visually obvious, and tinted the instruments colours that referenced the particular instruments played by the real band members, while also looking quirky and exotic.

It's part of my overall plan for the band in the video: the idea is that the puppets are part of a mechanical toy (like a cam-toy, with a big ol' crank handle) and are just perfoming a automated mime to some extent. The extent to which they are actually producing the music should be ambiguous. It's a balance between timing their movements to the track, and making their movements stilted, so they might or might not be playing the song you hear.

For one thing, depending on how much time I find I have as I get on for the deadline, I might have the band wind down when the song slows down for the middle-eight...

2010-06-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a looong time since I updated here.

I'm working on a music video for a very excellent song... I did a rough animatic for about the first minute, though I'm staying fairly flexible about the timing of sequences so I didn't go beyond that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDFt-9bUx-M

Here's two of the four characters I'm animating. They're based on the band members a little, but mostly on the puppet characters of Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka (after which the album is named).

National Gallery version

2008-09-12T08:03:00.000-07:00

...And here's the latest - and possibly last ever - version...

National Gallery version of film from Kathryn Miller on Vimeo.

2008-08-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

Untitled from Kathryn Miller on Vimeo.

Latest version...

I'm running out of filenames for this film

2008-06-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

I've saved so many versions of this thing now I think the latest file is called leveretwithmusicfinalfinalfinal if I remember rightly. But I thought it was worth uploading this update on the previous final-for-now version because this features the excellent music done by my brother Christian whose Myspace is here.

This is no more the final version of the music than it is of the film. It was tailored to the film as it stood about a month ago.

The March Hare and The Fire Fly from Kathryn Miller on Vimeo.

Showreel

2008-06-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

Yup, this is my showreel...

Music is 'Horse and I' by Bat For Lashes.

Final film

2008-06-26T04:59:00.000-07:00

And this is the final film in all its glory... well, some of its glory- there's still quite a lot of work to do on it, and this is the version without the music.

I'll be posting more about the making of this (and how I continue to make it!)

The March Hare and The Fire Fly from Kathryn Miller on Vimeo.

...And furthermore...

2008-06-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd also post the train that I drew in Flash to use in some scenes (though in others the train's a more of a sillhouette with a boil on it, because that seemed more dynamic).

Tis, in fact, a very faithful drawing of a Fire Fly engine and Great Western Railway carriages, which research told me would have been the train crossing that bridge. The Fire Fly had been around for about eight years by 1844 (which is the estimated date of Turner's painting). Maidenhead Bridge I took more artistic license with because the actual structure, with its two, low brick arches may be one of Brunel's early miracles of engineering, but just wasn't dramatic enough for my tastes :)

In any case the train and the bridge were both very new in the 1840s: Turner was depicting absolute modernity. It's hard to get past the image of the steam train as romantic, but that's why I used the brash, limited palette inspired by 30s railway posters (which were screenprinted, I believe). The plan is to have plenty of smoke and steam - after all, the painting is called 'Rain, Steam and Speed' - and have the engine perpetually emerging from it. Sort of demonic.

... But in the meantime

2008-06-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

So here's some bits of preparitory work I did. Not the Turner, obviously :) That was the original inspiration for the film. The hare is actually there in the picture, but it's so tiny as to be barely visible in the actual painting, let alone this tiny reproduction.

And below are some sketches I did of hares from pictures and videos, some early mapping out of action and an excerpt from my storyboard.

Pairs project

2008-06-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

Hm, having some trouble getting my videos to upload but here's one that's cooperating: one brief project we had was for us 2D animators to pair up with a 3D animator on the course and animate a chatup line/rebuff situation.

The 3D bit - i.e. the really good bit - is by Bill Elliot.

Animation: 'A bit of an eyesore' from Kathryn Miller on Vimeo.

2008-06-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

As I write I'm in the very final week of my PgDip in Character Animation at Central Saint Martins. It's been a steep learning curve and I still feel like I've only just begun to understand how this animation stuff works...

I'm going to post some videos and pictures here from the past few months, mostly from the production of my final project animation.

For now here's my original animatic... well, I say animatic. I kinda got bored and animated it quite a lot...