Sound in Animation

“Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotion.” Michael Geisler

As Micheal Geisler says here without sound one cannot interpret what is happening in the scenes, it gives a depth of life and emotion to a film or animation. It conveys emotion so that the listener or a watcher can understand what the characters are feeling. The interpreter becomes the character, it is as if you're looking through the characters eyes.
Music have an amazing impact on us, it can make us sad or laugh. It can move us in an impossible ways without even words. Music has become a part of us without us realising, it is that powerful, impacting and sets our emotions free.


“The right music can help your animation flow, and sound effects can give your work a solid feeling that adds to the illusion of life.” Mark Simon.

The sounds that are in animation or film are:
Ambient or natural sounds
Sound effects
Sound tracks
Narration
Dialogue

Without all of these sounds an animation would be lifeless. All of the sounds in an animation plays a major role in creating a perfect animation. Sound effects can show the interpreter what the character is feeling and thus the interpreter will take that into account. Narration can help the interpreter in a massive way for it helps the watcher to understand what is happening when there is no movement.
Dialogue helps to build depth to a character and can also emphasise the type relationship between two or more characters.
With the right music it makes the animation amazing or horrendous, it is up to the creator to pick the right music so that interpreter can feel what the creator is trying to say through the characters behaviour and attitude.

“A truth whispered among animators is that 70% of a show's impact comes from the sound track.” Michel Dougherty.

I totally agree with Michel Doughtery said, without the sound tracks an animation does not build up emotions, it doesn't put us into the characters shoes and help us to experience what they're feeling. Even if a character in an animation is smiling it doesn't convey their feeling towards us, e.g. character A kills character B, a smile appear on character A's face. If there was no sound track in the background, the interpreter would not know how to convey this information. So if the animator put's a triumphant sound track in the back ground, the watcher will interpret it as victory or if the animator puts a sinister sound track in the background of the killing, the interpreter will convey the information of the killing as evil.

Therefore sounds play a major part in animation it helps us to take in the information easier without us feeling astray from the animation. It helps us to interpret it better and can put ourselves in the characters shoes.

Cameraless Animation - Creating aThaumatrope

In this weeks Educational Futures seminar we discussed and looked into Camera-less Animation, which basically means making an image or a drawing move without the use of frame by frame photography. Methods of camera-less animation are Thaumatropes, Flipbooks and Phenakistoscopes.

I myself tried my hand at making a Thaumatrope. A Thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in the nineteenth centuary. It is a disk with two different images on either side and has two strings punched into holes on the edges of the disk, when the disk is spun on the strings the two images blend and together create a new image that the eye can see.

This is how I made mine;

Step 1: I assembled together the necessery tools, such as sissors, colouring pens and pencils, glue, string (or rubber bands), a piece of carboard, plain paper and a compass with a pencil.

Step 2: Next I took my piece of paper and compass and drew three circles of equal radii, its worth taking note of this length as you will need it for the cardboard later.

Step 3: After I drew the circles I then cut them out with sissors.

Step 3: Next I took my compass and piece of cardboard and drew a circle of equal radius to the paper circles and cut it out.

Step 4: Then I took one of my paper circles to one side and drew my drawing of choice on it with a dark coloured pen. The reason for this is when I trace the same image on a seperate disk in pencil I will be able to see it and also when I draw the accompanying image I will be able to see the original and make the second image fit perfectly to it.

Step 5: Using the dark original image I drew the image i will be using and also the accompanying image over it.

Step 6: After I had made my two images, it was time to stick them on ether side of the cardboard. It is important to remember that the image on the back needs to be upside down so that when the disk spins they will both be upright and blend in together well.

Step 7: Take two elastic bands and cut them, then punch two holes through the disk either edge of the disk.

Step 8: I fed the two elastic bands through each hole and tied them on the ends. Pick up your bands or string, each one between your thumb and forefinger then twist and watch the disk spin and the two images melt together to make a new one.

Viola:

What is a learning environment?

Learning environment is created by the individual, it is a place where an individual can concentrate as well as excel in their studies.
To accommodate a learning environment the learner should be placed first and the teacher should accommodate the learners needs in education, for the students learn in different places therefore it is up to the educator to cater for the needs of the students. It mostly depends upon how the teacher organises the educational setting - such as the natural ecosystem in which the learner can learn.
The learner should feel comfortable in the learning environment for it impacts the student's learning, it should also promote motivation to learn, their sense of belonging should be positive as well as well-being and personal safety.

What is animation?

In 21st Century animation has become a key player in the societal needs and presentations, it's in our work place and leisure, it has become a norm. Animation has become a money tree to many businesses as a cost effective advertisement which targets both adults and children, thus bringing in  millions of profit.
Animation is created by rapid movements of different pictures, thus creating an illusion that the subjects are moving. Animation can be hand drawn, computerised or pictures of 3D objects.

Pros of animation

• It can convey information successfully without much communication or sound. 
• Target audience in not specific for it can be easily understood by everyone.
• Excellent way to promote a brand or a story therefore effective in catching people's attention.
• It's a fun way of learning and understanding information.

Cons of animation 

• It can be time consuming and expensive to produce. 
• It should have fairly basic graphics otherwise it can cause information will overload. 

Example of a successful animation software: Toon Boom Animation. 
They cater for children, home users, productions such as schools, universities as well their students and educators. They offer a wide range of pre-production tools to leading edge animation solutions.
Advantages of a student using a Toon Boom are preparing students on careers of animations, media and film industries, and expanding the students knowledge and talent in technological tools.
They have won many awards such as Ub Iwerks Award in 2013 acknowledging extensive excellence throughout the industry.

Animations can be helpful for many different individuals for they are useful and helps the learners to be creative and to explore their imaginations

Reference
About Toon Boom Animation. (2015). Toon Boom Animation.  Available: https://www.toonboom.com/company/about-us
Last accessed 2015

Beauty and the Beast

The last animation I watched was Beauty and the Beast, it's a romantic and musical animation produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was helped by Pixar.
Pixar produced a rendering software called CAPS (Computer Animation Production System). Which integrated 2D/3D effect into the animation therefore making it easier for the merging of hand drawn animation and computer generated imagery. CAPS computerises traditional ink and paint method, and adds many multiplane and camera effects thus making it easier for the production crew to play with the backgrounds/characters on separate layers - this was seen in ballroom scene as well the "Be Our Guest" song scene .
The advantage of using CAPS in animation is that in areas that are enclosed and lines could be easily coloured in via computerisation.

Beauty and the Beast was in making for 50 years till it was finally released in November 1991 and it was instant success for it profited over $100 million in the box office, thus becoming the third most profited film of the year. The film won 3 Golden Global Awards, it was the fist ever animation to be nominated as Best Picture Academy Award - overall was nominate six times and won 2 Oscars for the Best Original Song and Best Music Score.

References

 Movie fone. (2011). 25 Things You Didn't Know About 'Beauty and the Beast. Available: http://news.moviefone.com/2011/11/15/25-things-you-didnt-know-about-beauty-and-the-beast/. Last Accessed 2015.

Joe Tracy, Digital Media FX Magazine. (2001). An Inside Look at The Original Beauty and the Beast. Available: http://www.digitalmediafx.com/Beauty/Features/originalbeauty.html. Last Accessed: 2001.

John Scaicca Writes. (2012). Walt Disney's Animation Innovations.   Available:  http://johnsciacca.webs.com/apps/blog/show/16227284-walt-disney-s-animation-innovations-part-2. Last Accessed: 5/09/2014



Stop Motion Animation

A stop-motion animation is an animation that is photographed a frame at a time, it usually consists of physical subject that has been moved slightly. So when frames are promptly played it creates an illusion of movement. To create a strong stop-animation there should be a large amounts of pictures so that the animation will flow smoothly rather than an interval in between the frames. A reasonable setting would be adequate so that the objects would not be disturbed. For if the scene is disturbed then the whole animation will be ruined therefore you would have to start all over again.

There are several different types of stop motion animation:

Go Motion
It was first used in Empire Strikes Back and was first co-developed by Phil Tippett. Go motion incorporates motion blur into each frame by moving the animated model slightly during the exposure of each film frames whereas in a traditional stop motion animation it's only between the exposure.

Pixilation Animation

Instead of taking pictures of objects you use humans instead. The live actors poses will be photographed multiple times in each frame, and the position will be changed only slightly in different frames. It could be considered to be the most difficult type of stop motion for it's easier to control an object rather than a human body. 

Silhouette Animation
This animation uses the characters silhouette or shadow only. This can be accomplished by back-lighting detailed cutouts then moving them slightly in different frames followed by photographing them.








Reference:

The Flying Animator. Pixilation Animation. Available: http://www.the-flying-animator.com/pixilation.html. Last Accessed 2013.

Cruzine. (2011). Stop Motion Animation. Available: http://www.cruzine.com/2011/05/23/stop-motion-animation/

Intro to Education Futures

A subject that introduces itself as 'Education Futures' can cause varying misconceptions, truthfully it's about how to promote technology into the educational subjects. e.g. the use of animation.

The blog posts that I will be publishing will be concentrated on the use of animation, what animation is and how to incorporate animation into the education sector.