"Creativity is the world's greatest recycling program. We get inspired by what we see and then we inspire others."
Chanida Areewatnasombat – The Cycle of Life
Tim Pachuau – Work in Progress
Jesse Cafiero – Colors Collide music video
Aardman Animations – Sledgehammer music video
Top 10 Stop Motion animation movies
Thomas Rawle – Ocean music video
The brief enabled us to adapt one of our previous projects, either Hand and Eye or Hybrid forms into an animation. We could decide whether this might involve transforming the entire storyboard from our Hand and Eye project, or whether we simply wanted to modify or redesign illustrations, sections of our research or ideas and concepts.
Although text could have been interesting to experiment with by turning it into an animation, I decided to use my Hand and Eye project. At first, I was considering animating my whole storyboard but felt as though I had already spent sufficient time altering it and therefore wanted to design something new. I liked the idea of creating a light-hearted animation using only a simple idea, which made me stick with the concept. I’ve also never worked digitally or created an animation before so I didn’t want to set myself an unrealistic task, as we are limited with the time we have to create the project and I still need to pick up skills and knowledge when it comes to working digitally.
In my Hand and Eye project, I interpreted the song “Beautiful People with Beautiful Problems”, by Lana Del Ray, which is a song that focuses on being able to rise above your problems and finding hope that will get you through certain issues. It insinuates that no matter how beautiful someone may look on the outside, everyone has flaws hiding on the inside. My way of illustrating this song was by portraying someone who is close to loosing their ways but has the help and support of someone else in their life and is, therefore, able to overcome their own dilemmas and troubles. Often, all we need is someone or something to rely on that brings us back to reality or helps us through a moment. This gave me the idea of wanting to illustrate the minor things we rely on, on a day-to-day basis.
Once we were briefed on the new project ‘Through A Lens’, the first workshop was based on animation. In this presentation, we discussed storyboards, animatics, frame plans/thumbnails, and style frames.
Storyboard:
Animation techniques:
For our first task, we were to create a frame plan, which gave us the opportunity to draw out our ideas and would eventually act as a guide when we come to animating the real version.
Our next task consisted of selecting one of these thumbnail sketches so that we could develop it into a larger drawing. We were told to contemplate how much detail we add to these drawings, as we have to create a large number of them. The aim was to draw a few of these to the standard we would like our whole animation to be so that we can time how long it has taken us to create a frame.
As my final piece didn’t turn out the way I hoped it would, I decided to try and enhance, augment and increase my type. Due to not being able to vacuum form over my initial idea, I had to change my final piece, which didn’t give me the outcome I was expecting. My work did not turn out as three-dimensional as planned, which made me reconsider other ways I could present it. The final photographs can be seen below.
When I started planning out my final piece, one of the first things I had to decide on was which material I wanted to use. My aim was to create a conceptual piece of work that is able to raise awareness and possibly influence change about the consumption of plastic. My plan was to do this by printing text onto plastic material and then vacuum forming the sheets, to create a gripping 3D piece of work. I was however aware that my piece has more to do with conceptual art than it is a visually pleasing piece of artwork.
After speaking to the 3D workshop about my idea I was sent off to do some research on plastic materials so that I could figure out which would be the most suitable for my project. As I wanted to vacuum form my pieces, I was advised that I need to find an appropriate type of plastic to do this, so that it won’t release any harmful chemicals or toxins.
I decided to choose High Impact Polystyrene sheets from Technology Supplies because these were the only sheets I found that aren’t brand new and are instead ‘reprocessed’. They are recycled vacuum forming sheets that are affordable and form effortlessly.
Unfortunately, I was limited to the size because of the vacuum former we have at the university. This only allowed me to form a sheet that was roughly 30cm x 45cm. As this project was mainly set so that we could consider site-specific work more and contemplate and assess the planning, budgeting, and transportation of materials it didn’t matter too much about the realistic scale of the work. If I were to create a similar conceptual piece that was raising awareness about an issue then I would complete it on a much larger scale.
I was hoping I could vacuum form these plastic sheets over plastic bottles or other unused plastics that were going to waste. At first, I was told this would work but once I had screen printed my sheets and was ready to form them, there was another staff in the 3D workshop who said this wasn’t possible. I wouldn’t be able to vacuum form my sheets over any loose pieces of plastic, as the sheets would simply grip to them and become stuck. I was left with no other choice but to use large plastic sheets that other students had disregarded, which I could use to vacuum form over instead. This made my overall piece turn out completely different than I had imagined because I was expecting each sheet to expand by at least 30cm, making it a larger mould that has been sculpted and built upon and looks very much 3D. The plastic sheets that I was using instead, were large but the forming and cuts of the sheets weren’t very deep and therefore my sheet that I had moulded was still extremely flat. This is a shame, as my piece didn’t turn out as initially hoped but I still tried to make the most out of photographing the text that was printed onto the constructed sheet as if it were larger.
For my final piece, I felt as though I had more to say than a sentence or two and therefore decided it wouldn’t look as nice visually if I were to place it all onto one item. It would also not give passersby the chance to read the information in time if they perceive it as being too much.
Text for my final piece:
As I focussed my project on plastic waste and how humans dispose of it, I was intrigued about how much waste I accumulate. It was not until I started collecting my own rubbish that I started to realise how much a person alone gathers without being fully aware. This made me understand the importance of recycling. I decided to make use of the waste I had collected and made a variety of collages.
I was planning on displaying my work in a busy area to make sure it will be seen by a variety of people. As we were instructed to use a language that we do not speak, I was unsure at first which language would be the best to use. I did not want to pick a language that no one would be able to understand, because then my work would almost become irrelevant. This made me consider areas that are known for specific cultures within a place.
Most people living in London generally use Elephant and Castle as a point to get from one place to another. It has excellent transportation links and connects many places together. As for Latin Americans, Elephant and Castle is a well known area for people to communicate in Spanish, reach out to friends, appreciate their traditional music, food and culture, and exchange information. Elephant and Castle alone has over 80 Latin American businesses that consist of restaurants, cafes, travel agencies, lawyers and many more. Latin Americans use this convenient location, especially if they’ve recently moved to England and are struggling with the language but need to find instruction and advice about things including accommodation, jobs, National Insurance and GP’s.
Eveline Kinzkofer 