When in Blogger, Blog!

Hello Monday. Always nice to see you. Except not really.

After a sadly rather unproductive weekend (give or take a few character sketches... and I am cleaning out two different rooms in my house so cut me a little slack here!), I start my blog and this week ready to get on with my work. I have already created my characters from my previous module and am happy with the style and look I have used so at this stage I am doubtful that there is much opportunity for further development, give of take a couple design changes.

Its a very strange but (to me anyway) convenient coincidence that the style we have to create our animation in is in cutout- I had done my animatic in such a style using photoshop. However, after looking at other cutout examples I am starting to consider other ideas that I can use. For example, I have noticed some animations, such as Angela Anaconda, using photography for backgrounds and characters. As my backgrounds are rather simplistic (mainly so as not to distract the audience from the characters yet in my opinion doesn't make the animation look very impressive) I was originally planning to create background noise to suggest where the action is taking place. After looking at other examples of cut out however, I have more ideas I can use that can create a more interesting background but not take the attention away from the character.

To start up, I have looked at different ways people have created cut out animations for two reasons- one being to see what other people have done in the past and to show me what can and won't work for my own work.

Janice and her Butterfly

Janice and Her Butterfly from Edmond Hawkins on Vimeo.

I enjoyed the child like art style used to create the animation, everything from backgrounds to characters being drawn and coloured roughly in crayons and other materials. It actually moves very well which in my opinion makes the scene more impressive.

The Grand Adventure

The Grand Adventure from MizzMeister on Vimeo.

I'm very impressed in the movement in this one as well and how simple yet smooth it is. I was particularly smitten with how they did the clouds and sky in the opening credits. I have something similar for my opening scene and have been worrying about how I would do it so this gives me a few ideas.

"This is an EX-KENNY!"


As South Park has been done on the computer similar to mine, I consider it to be the prime example of the art style I am using. That said, I am going to use more texture to my characters, using the sponge filter tool in photoshop. I picked this example as, to be frank, its hilarious AND is a fitting tribute to Terry Gilliam, who is a cut out guru.

Angela Anaconda


I pick this as an example not so much for the movement of the characters but more so for the backgrounds and how they have been done. They are a good example of photography in cut out yet I notice that they don't distract the audience from the character. I think I will create my backgrounds in a similar way, yet will make them less colourful in photoshop, having the pigeons be the only real colourful things in the scene.

Charlie and Lola


Finally, I chose this one as it is a children's programme created in a cut out style, which I would like to create for my animation. The movement of the characters is something to consider as well and introducing different materials and textures into the mix.

All of these animations in some way relate to each other as I am using different elements of each to create my own. As you can probably tell, I have a lot to say which unfortunately leaves you with a lot to read. Oh well. I'm just doing what I'm told!

Speaking of doing what is expected of me, I also need a rough outline of what I plan to achieve over the week. Well from what I can gather, I need to bulk up my drawing sketchbook with artwork, get to work on the frames, show colour examples and bulk up on my development. All of which I will contribute to bit by bit as the week progresses. So a rather rough outline but it states what I plan to get on with. I was never really one for planning.

Now its all about accomplishing all that work! Better get started!