Aesthetica Short Film Festival

ASFF, or Aesthetica Short Film Festival is a film festival that takes place in York in the North of England. It includes 15 venues, 300 films and takes place over 4 days.

We when on the friday (7th November) and had the choice of three master classes to attend. I was not able to go to any of the film/animation viewings as they were full. But I was able to go to 2 masterclasses.

The first masterclass I attended was ‘The Meeting Point Between Film and Gaming’ which was presented by BAFTA Cymru award winner Cecil Charles. He’d discussed the narrative and aesthetic aspects of interactive entertainment and the crossover between film and gaming.

From this master class I learned a bit about the company Revolution and the different ways the narration is different between film and gaming. How gaming narratives can be linear, multi-linear, emergent, anti-structure and many more. How different types of conflict (inner, inner-personal and environmental) that can happen.

The second master class was Animation Production and Design, presented by a producer fromBlink Ink. A British animation company. Blink Ink combines live-action and animation, and have been catching the public’s eye from John Lewis’s The Bear and the Hare christmas campaign to the award-winning video for Bjork’s Mutual Core.

I was able to see what the company produced and some of the props that were used to create them. From this I learned that you can enhance a story with an animation technique but you can’t create one with it. That it doesn’t have to be expensive to create a good animation, just needs to say something about who you are as a director/animator and the story. Lastly that ‘making of’ films can be important, that employers like to see and can help you at a later date.

AND 208 – Exercise 3: Lying

The final and last exercise for this module was to again to chose a piece of dialogue, storyboard it and animate it. However this time the audio had to show one character lying, hiding something from another.

The audio I chose was from Chicken Little (Disney – 2005), the child hiding why he shouted from their dad by lying and saying they fell out of bed. I had a few audio clips that I could use but decided to animate this one as I already had a few ideas for it.

When drawing out the storyboard, I thought on how people lie and the signs they give out. Sweating, position of the eyes and eyebrows, not looking people in the eye, blinking too much, and the way they smile.

The block for this exercise, I wanted to get the cameras shots and perpective right before going in and adding detail.

Taking what I previously learned from the other exercises and allied them to this one. The rule of three (repeating a action three times), using accents, expressions and lip syncing. The only thing that I had to change later on was the size of the head which was easily change (and something that I fell on, on the previous exercises. Not keeping the shapes the right size.)

AND 208 – Exercise 2b

The second part of exercise two was similar to the first. The difference was that a piece of dialogue had to be chosen. This had to have two people speaking (both the same gender to be identical twins), either arguing or having a disagreement. We could either use the character we already created or create new ones.

I decided to create a new set of twins due to the audio clip I chose. The clip I chose was from A Knight’s Tale. One character being excited and wants to know if she (a girl he likes) has seen him and other being sarcastic and not at all interested in his twins actions.

After looking at Toby Shelton’s storyboards I decided to experiment with the camera shots to tell the story and make it more interesting.
(There is a Toon Boom watermark on this one as it was made in the free version of Toon Boom)

This one I added expressions to the characters and move accents on the actions. I was also suggested that I draw hands on my characters to clearly show the actions of the characters and their movements.

This final edit of the exercise hasn’t changed much from the previous one. I added the mouth movements and lip sync. I also added movement to the eyebrows to show the characters thinking and their emotions more clearly.

AND 208 – Exercise 2a

This second exercise we had to create twin characters, design them, give them a backstory and personalities (that are different form one another). We had to create an scene in which these two characters would be fighting over something and show them reaction to it and each other.

First we did a little exercise to help with facial expressions. Taking picture of our selves showing different emotions and drawing our character facial expressions sheets. This helped me quite a bit as I had trouble perviously trying to understand how different expressions work.

(I had to take off my glasses because of the glare off of the computer screen)

With this one i decided to go with my witch twin characters, Toil and Trouble. Toil being the no nonsense and sensible twin while Trouble was the dramatic one. I made them fight over a potion ingredient with two possible endings with each the the twin winning the ‘fight’.

This exercise was for us to practise storyboarding, making the actions and the expressions of the characters clear in them.

AND 208 – Lip Sync Test

Thos exercise was just a little something extra to do and more practise for us. Again we had to chose another piece of dialogue but this time focus more on lip sync and how the face moves as it speaks.

I chose a clip from Monty Python.

This one was quick. I had previously drawn out the mouth movement that I would need so all I had to do in Toon Boom was drawn it out and match it to the sound.

To find out what mouth movements I needed was simple as I just played the audio over and over again, mouthing along with it and look at the shapes that I formed.

From looking at Richard William’s Animators Survival Kit. I realised I could do more with it. Having the body / character react more on the accents as well as making them ‘talk’ using their body. When we are talking we don’t just stand still, our head moves, our facial features move and our body.

Taking what I had just learned I drew out some quick sketches of what body and head movements that character could do while speaking. This test is rough as well but is more improved then the previous. In the way that I feel as if it fits better with the dialogue and you get a feel of the emotion behind the dialogue.

AND 208 – Exercise One

This module is to help us explore and gain a better understanding of animated performances and dialogue through different exercises.

The first exercise was to take a piece of film dialogue that you could hear strong emotion behind it. And from this create thumbnails and a storyboard which then you block out into Toon Boom, adding to it as time when on.

The first clip I chosen was from the Road to El Dorado. However, when I started my thumbnails I couldn’t get away from the movie. I had seen it so many times and know the scene so well that I couldn’t put my own stamp on to it.

So I chose another one. I chose a piece of dialogue from The First Wives Club. Which was more better, as it portrayed more emotion in it and i could create my own scene from it. Creating a few storyboards to choose from.

My first block and try at this exercise.

My second try. Going back to it I put more emphasis on the movement. When the character throws her hand down and leads back, leaning over the other character and getting the timing right for when she knocks the glass out of the others hand. Which took me a while to get right. I also added lip sync, though it is rough.

Not very happy with what I did here. I decided to out a to line and add more detail to the characters, but in doing this I feel as if it distracts form the movement and the actions of the characters. Also the proportions are not quite right.