statement of intent

Statement Of Intent – Theo Akpofure


I am currently preparing for the final stages of my Foundation Degree in Animation at Newcastle College, now nearing the end of the second year I have decided that I would like to take my skill set further and push my self to a higher level by acquiring a place on a degree course which will not only encourage me to gain a better understanding of my animating style and versatility but will prepare me for a job in industry.

Animation is a growing passion of mine and I believe that this course has allowed me to express and develop my skills in a way which I never thought possible, taking part in a numerous selection of projects which include; 2D, Stop motion, 3D, Traditional and rotoscoped animation. I have become confident and fluent with a broad range of production techniques that I have acquired over the years.

During my second year of study I am working on a animated short called, The Adventures of Munblunko, a story about a young African boy living in an African compound with his large family, he always gets up to many mischievous deeds, which do not go un noticed as there is always the foreboding presence of an ancient demon called the Tikoloshe which take’s naughty children and wrong doers away, this was my first and final idea that I chose quite confidently as it catered to my rather adaptive skill set and also past experiences between me and my friend Zuki after a trip to the mother land in 2012.

The animation entails a few different animation techniques; Pin puppeting in after effects, Real rotoscoped video footage in flash cs5.5 and paper cut out animation, but most of the images created were made in Adobe flash cs5.5 so my drawing style is kept the same.

While studying Animation, I have enjoyed being able to get on with projects and finding new artists, animation techniques and modes of practice.

You can't have influence's without having influence, the chance to research into artists has been very helpful inspiring, Julian Opie's simplified portrait drawing gave me the idea to use pebble eye's and using mouth and eye brow gestures, control facial expressions, emotions etc.
I greatly admire Monty python's animating technique, how he uses paper cut out to make simple yet quirky animations while consuming a lot less time, which would be a good thing .......

By taking on a third year of study I wish to delve further into the interesting world of animation, produce more flash animated animation shorts and refine my work flow and style to a level in which not only friend's and followers online notice me, but employers and companies who believe that my style best fit's they're 1may also offer free lance or possible job opportunities
What do you want from a third year of study......build more skills, develop professional approach, industry experience, commercial and personal project work.

Contemporary Animation Essay

4 : predict where you think it will be in 10 years time 

Contemporary animation has come a long way since the early 1900’s, it was an era enriched with the greatest animators, companies and of course spectacular animations and film productions of all time, with great names such as Windsor McCay (Gertie The Dinosaur 1914) who produced the very first animation with actual video footage added, Walt Disney the creator of Mickey mouse and the founder of the Walt Disney film company, his films are legendary and spur most young animators interested in contemporary animation today, his films included Bambi, Snow white and the seven dwarfs which was the first ever film to involve roto scoped animation drawn directly over film but onto many different layers, it was a very ingenious method indeed and still used by many animators today. 

In my eyes contemporary animation is one of the most well evolved subjects in the 1900’s it went from simple stick figure drawings and short stories to full feature length animations that last 90 minutes and more and crammed full with a tremendous amount of detail down to a single hair, spectacular attention to detail, breath taking concept art and scenery and unforgettable stories that still live on our memories today. 

Unfortunately due to the world as it is and always has been, the world of contemporary animation has nearly died out compared to the amount of computer based animation and 3D animation, due to the people of today being uninterested with the style as it is to time consuming, not worth it and it is old news, but these are not facts these are just statements put together by numerous amounts of narrow minded individuals who follow the latest trends and most convenient methods of the current year. 

The same has also been said in many other areas such as fashion although I see a lot of the old clothing styles coming back into fashion from the early 1900’s etc that were said to be a thing of the past but I see these styles coming back into fashion everyday, However the inevitable truth that everything in the world, including animation is always evolving and striving to be better, is the main cause of this tragic end to a great era. 

But not all hope is lost, it was said that the camera was supposed to take the place of paintings and drawings etc, but this is a false statement as paintings are still around and being done today, as they are an expression of the human mind and essence and capture an artistic and very much surreal image which defines a period or a moment in time, where as a photo just captures a real life image which reminds us of a certain event or a scene. 

Contemporary Animating is a lot like painting although instead of trying to send out an array of thoughts feelings and trying to build a story and scene in a persons head, they literally show it through a series of many beautiful compositions each Hand painted or drawn by hand and strung together. 

CGI and 3D animation are the big thing now, but they will soon die out as the more advanced and effective methods come in to take over, as far as the world of contemporary animation goes, I can’t really speculate exactly as to where the contemporary animation industry will be in ten years time, but i can give an educated guess. 

Due to the cutting edge technology we have today Apple Book Pros,Pc’s, SLR cameras, State of the art full body motion capture and an ever growing and upgrading arsenal of 3D modelling, image manipulation and vector based drawing programmes, we could take contemporary art even further to a level that it has never been to before, we just need young talent with the persistence and talent of the greats, combined with the smooth and ingenuitive methods today’s programmes and future programmes can provide. 

2D Animation is an art in it’s self it allows the animator to truly express them self through their work, create a fluent and extremely unique style, create feeling and emotions in the mind that themselves and the viewers have never even felt before, where as in the world 3D animation there are a lot more mechanical features to it and a lot of the things are pre done, it takes on a kind of anime approach also because of its rather similar outcome, let me reiterate further, when I say similar outcome I mean 3D animation has a lot of different environments and characters etc etc. 

When it comes down to it all 3D animation is the same you get a figure and you set it to do certain movements on a timeline, just as all anime is comprised of the same style, un unique I should call it, how ever there are certain individuals who are making a great effort to try to show that 3D Animation can match up to 2D, the main one is Pixar a company formed by former Disney animators who decided that they wanted to develop a new skill, a dream which has come through for them, and by combining the great names of Disney and Pixar there are sure to be many future greats soon enough. 

Although I don’t really have a great liking for 3D animated programmes and films with the odd exception of a few, I was very impressed when I seen that Disney have created a new animated short called Paper man in which they have shown 3D software can be used to create the appearance of a 2D animation, with the added advantage of being able to create a set and orbit freely around it and having all of their characters props and special effects ready to use at their disposal, But still keeping the original Disney drawing style. 

where as with traditionally drawn contemporary, the set was usually drawn frame by frame, if it involved for example trees blowing or grass moving in the background etc, I believe that Walt Disney had a background base layer of things he knew definitely weren’t going to move and then added extra separate layers on top to create moving background objects. 

I watched an interview the other day with the director of Disney’s paper man (John Karhs) and he talked about wanting to keep the style and line work of Walt Disney’s original contemporary work and integrate it more into further Disney productions, he said that Their 3D animation just doesn’t quite give off the same feel expressions wise, and I can honestly say I am with him on that one, I can now see exactly why Disney did not want Disney Pixar as part of his company, it may have just been the fact that contemporary has been the way he animated all his life and he didn’t want to change this, or it could have been the fact that he knew That taking short cuts in animation could perhaps be a step in the wrong direction. 

CGI and 3D Animation although They do bring you closer to reality, for example toy story in which toys come to life, and avatar in which alien like creatures inhabiting a planet are threatened by us, contrasted with the likes of the snowman and many of Walt Disney’s classics such as the lion king and The jungle book, which manages to convey a great depth of emotion and evokes memories of the past using simple lines and effects in a way that CGI or 3D could never do, says to me it’s time to bring contemporary animation back into the market and create a new era of animation. 

However 3D animation has developed a lot also there has been some spectacular 3D animation around, James Cameron’s Avatar featured some of the most jaw dropping visual effects and concept art that I have ever seen, and toy story even though 3D was a classic Disney tale but in a new context and form, The characters were the most simple part to this film, and for the technology they had when they made the first one the kinetics and attention to detail were mind blowing. 

Animator Roger Mainwood (Wivenhoe in Essex) worked with Raymond Briggs on the original Snowman film in 1982, 30 years down the line he has created the opening scenes to the sequel, during an interview with the BBC Mr Mainwood said "there's nothing quite like" bringing drawings to life, reflecting my earlier statement about the comparison of photo to painting, contemporary animation is the best and only way to truly express yourself totally and completely. 

Although most of the greatest animators of all time are dead not all hope is lost, their offspring, their siblings and colleagues friends etc, all have these skills maybe not the exact same style but everyone as they have a unique body structure has a unique style, which will only further develop with time, influence and life goals are a strong one on this subject, the way the world is today and the way it develops will mould the future of animation, it could take ten maybe even a hundred years for contemporary animation to come back, but as Walt Disney says “I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” 

A great deal of heart and imagination goes into contemporary animation and I would hate for that to die out, it is an art in it’s self and we being the next generation of people, with the correct tools and adaptable minds, need to step up to the plate and make sure that contemporary animation comes back an is here to stay, as Walt Disney said “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” 

I think contemporary animation will have come leaps and bounds in ten years time, and if this 3D to 2D animation method takes off this could be it’s big break, with the return of The snowman (Created By Raymond Briggs’s) with his new companion the snow dog, a spectacular work of art and a truly awe inspiring piece I have no doubt the 2D artists and fanatics will be inspired to keep the great tales and truly spectacular imagery created by their fore fathers, very much alive in the near future and hopefully for hundreds of years after. 

End of year summary

End of year summary

This year I have had a great amount of fun, I may have overcompensated a little on my work load and mucked up my weekly work flow plans, but managed to pull some rather handsome pieces of work out of the hat, including a very colourful and interesting selection of new 3D animated isometric and symmetrical pattern morphs, plus a selection of experimental work which I used in one of projects for a company called DMC, the task was to create a series of unique moving 3d patterns which were to be masked onto the companies logo, as I got extremely positive feedback from my tutor after seeing my work and putting in all the effort, I am very satisfied that I produced some work with a touch of professional standard.

My year has been filled with tasks that have challenged me physically and mentally to push myself to a new level of understanding while animating, a good example would be rotoscoping and voice syncing in my Adventures Of Munblunko animation, I devised a simple way to fix my vocals and that was, to basically create a set of lips and just move them up and down while syncing up to my sound, if I had more time to complete it I would have, but I created an audio free version as I have not yet finished all my scene's so could not record my script over the top, however I am still extremely chuffed with the amount of work I have done on my own and to see that my working standard is starting to improve.

This two year course has been a great learning experience, I have met new friends, absorbed new style's, flavours and techniques and incorporated them into my practise, it's inspiring to see how other people react to the work I have produced and an absolute pleasure to have viewed some of the stunning compositions they have created, if there is anything I would like to improve on it would be my bad time keeping, it has effected my work flow a lot over the past few years and it is a thing that only I can put right, also I would like to continue developing further 3D work and follow on where I left off.

Overall I would like to say that I would definitely recommend the Newcastle college FdA Animation course to any young artists who are just coming up in the world, the amount of content and knowledge that you take in subconsciously from the course is phenomenal, and I plan to use these skills reach a whole new level in my next course.

DCM LOGO - How i created my idents + S.W.O.T

DCM COMP – How to create an ident 

I was set the task of creating a series of short idents for a company called DCM, these video’s had to have a masked logo in each one and a piece of footage that contrasted best with my chosen footage (below are a images of my completed compositions) 

 

(This is my first ident) 

  

(This is the second ident I created) 

 

(This is my third ident, but this particular one I preferred to have outside of the mask as I thought it looked better, but this would not have met the regulations of the company, but it still count’s as evidence that I experimented) 

1. Create a mask in illustrator or Photoshop, identical to the shape or logo that you wish to use, in this case the dcm logo shape, so using the pen tool or polygonal selection tool, you must make a silhouette of your logo. 

(Example below, mask is coloured blue) 

 

2. Next add your back drop and mask to after effects and also fiddle with your gradient selection to create a gradual blur out from the top and the bottom, have a look at it, tweak it until your pleased with it, then complete the next step. 

(Back drop & logo together) 

 

3. This is the tricky bit, now on after effects I used another tree’s mov. File, And added a negative effect to it to create my white tree branches, but I lined the movie up with my Tree.mov original version, I then using my mask shape masked the tree footage inside my logo. 

(Tree mov. On the left Mask on the right) 

 

3. This is what my tree mov. Looked like when it was masked inside my logo 

 

4. This is what my finished ident looked like, after showing my composition in aftereffects and making sure that all my transparent mask’s worked properly, I had some scaling problems with my other projects also which I shall display below. 

 

Ident 2 

1. This second ident was very similar to the first one I added my still video image to my project, which was a low lit  creepy alley way. 

 

2. I then added my same masked kaleidoscope file and added it into the composition, but you may have noticed on each image the colour of the kaleidoscope pattern changes, I will explain in the next part. 

 

3. The reason the colour changes on the dcm logo is because in after effects, I put an animated gradient onto my mask, so when it played in real time it was masked off nicely. 

 

Ident 3 

1. This compositions was set up pretty much the same as the last one, I added my video and mask, also some vinneting around the edges, I also added the gradient change to my mask and moved on to my video footage. 

 

 

2. Next I took my video footage and added a green and red gradient to it, I then tweaked the contrast and brightness setting's to make the video footage a bit brighter, 

 

3. This is the gradient that I used, to create the strange green almost sci fi movie like florescent colour on my ident, I did this by putting the gradient over my video footage, going to the blending options and selecting multiply, this way the gradient goes translousent while still retaining it's colour 

 

4 I also thought I would share with you a still of the magnificent kaleidoscope shape, it's a lot bigger than my logo so when it was cut into my video I chose to line the centre up to the centre of one of the circle on the dcm logo mask. 

 

Ident 4 

I did not collect any footage for my fourth ident but I did show how I created the mask for it and explained how I put it together on the supplied CD named : (DCM logo : How to) 

it basically shows how I put an animated video mask over the top of my logo and turned it a white colour, then took my kaleidoscope mask and changed the colour of it by using the colour gradient tool again, except I made it purple. 

Evaluation(S.W.O.T) 

As projects go I think this one was pretty simple, I created all of my 3D objects in cinema 4D easy, with the aid of tutorials to help me create the effects that I wanted, those of them that I wanted to use were added into my compositions, along with video footage and put together very successfully I might add, there was the odd hiccup here and there but I resolved it and adapted, I have added a few more skills to my arsenal also, I've learned how to create an array of different pattern's shapes and transitions in 3D software something which I never thought I could accomplish, and learned how to composite it into a composition in after effect's, and from there used new techniques such as vignetting and gradient multiplying, if there was anything I would definitely improve on during this project if anything is my time planning, as currently as always I end up doing everything at the last moment because I have over catered my time on another project, but also I must expand my know how on 3D software so I can get the most out of it, and work on my after effects editing skills, as this would be a very helpful tool in many of my future ventures, also I must inherit a great deal of professionalism, as I create work and don't execute some things to the fullest of my ability, or just make stupid mistakes, discipline is a must have.