Collaboration: Dentist Animation 'STOP'

STOP

Short Animation

As a side project I am collaborating with a Dental Consultant to produce a short animation to raise awareness of safety for student doctors. Raising awareness of STOP reminds doctors of procedures to follow to make a patients experience both safer and easier.

I received details and references of previous student’s work of posters about STOP. This gave me an insight what STOP was about and how I’d share the same message.

I started with a mood board to generate some ideas of designs and even colour pallet.

From these images I wanted to design the video as a concise which would mean the message would be easily read and the design would be simple to support this. Because this is a safety video, I thought a design inspired by warning signs and labels were appropriate, this is because these signs are globally recognised. I considered to create the video to be ‘future proof’ which could be used in a range of ways and not have dated designs in ten or even five years’ time.  

I intend for the video to be rather short but have a very clear message. This message would be broken into the 3 sections of S (Site check) TO (Time Out) P (Proceed). This would be clearly shown with visuals and why these steps are important. The video would also be accompanied by narration, this would allow the video to be viewed with sound, however I intend to design the visuals to be independent so that they don’t need sound to be understood.

I produced these sketches to create an idea of what the video may look like and the design challenges that I may face. I had to consider a 2D character within a 3D space and if there would be depth to these characters. I sketched these images based upon the stages of STOP; therefore the composition is not what you'd see on screen rather they are sections which represent what would be. 

I sent these sketches and mood board to see if the design is what he wanted. He liked the designs, however was concerned with the stock photos of the moodboard. I ensured that there would be no live imagery within the animation, however this made me consider my designs to incorporate the correct safety equipment.  

I will continue by creating a storyboard and plan how long the video will be. 

Caricatures: College Edition 2

Additional College Caricatures

Monday 25th April 2016

Returning to caricatures, I decided to draw some more friends. I had trouble initially with finding inspiration and to draw them; I gave it sometime and then started again. I continued to observe characteristics and really capture the expression within the photo, then exaggerate it through my drawings.

Sinnala Banana was the first drawing I created as part of the second ‘part’ of my caricatures of my college friends. Within the photo she has a raised chin looking down at the camera which gave a great expression of superiority. I used both the position of the head and her eyes to express this in the drawing.

Eoj Rugburn expresses such amazement and excitement at whatever he’s looking at. My last drawings were based off the structure and expression of a person’s face, I focussed on the expression within this drawing.

Finally Cyborg Dean (aka The Mean Dean Machine) was the last caricature I produced. I found this difficult because of the shape of his head and to exaggerate the proportions of the features of his face.

Again I have enjoyed producing these drawings and will revisit them in the near future. I found these drawings more challenging than the last ones but will spend time to improve them. 

Unit X Space: First Look

Unit X Space: London Scottish House 

Tuesday 26th April 2016

We were introduced to the space where our exhibitions will be, it is the ‘London Scottish House’ in Manchester near the G-Mex. It is an old office building which has a lot of space and separate rooms such as the corner room, kitchen and server room.

We were supposed to see the space as a group, however different members ran into problems involving travel and finding the building. Therefore we saw the space separately and met as the groups transferred. This will give us an opportunity to discuss our thoughts on the space at our next meeting.

 The ceiling is important as we will be hanging objects, therefore these photographs will be used as reference during our discussions on how we will hang these objects. 

We were given a talk about health and safety about the building and being within the space, then we were allowed to browse the space ourselves. We found a corner room which we thought would be appropriate for our installation. This is because the corner room is walled off from the rest of the space, however provides enough leg room to walk around. We thought this would be appropriate because our installation has multiple hanging elements which could pose a health and safety risk; therefore if the audience have to step into the space there is less chance of someone stumbling or falling into the installation. We have already considered ideas on how to make our installation safe, but we believe this would be another necessary step.

We took photos of the space to show the rest of the group and to allow future planning of the space. At our next meeting we will discuss the measurements of the space and begin to blueprint our installation including quantities and space. 

Unit X Hanging Objects Tests

Unit X: Tests

Hanging Objects

Wednesday 26th April 2016

After discussing ideas of what we want to produce for the unit X brief, we discussed the idea of testing how it would look. This is because we had decided the materials we were going to use but had not seen what it actually looks like. I.e. hanging a book by fishing line.

Therefore I gathered the materials and created a test on how the objects appear by hanging them from fishing line. I hung books and paper (I bought from a local charity shop) with fishing line from a drying rack.

Hanging these objects brought forward practical problems on how they would hang and how to achieve what we want. Because we wanted to make the objects within this ‘tornado’ to appear that they have frozen in time to capture motion.

I had to also think about how the books would hang, when I used the spine and a single length of wire, the book would be hung at an angler and closed. However, we would want the books to be open to allow the pages to ‘escape’. This meant I had to use additional line to hang the pages and hold the covers open. To achieve a dynamic pose for these objects we would have to consider the lengths of the wire that one would have to be longer than the other; the object would hang at an angle.

As the paper is extremely light, the wire does not become straight and returns into a coiled position. We would have to consider this if we would use additional line to lower the paper or use a weight for the line to hold. 

I also considered the possibility of a draft and how that would affect the objects; therefore I recorded videos of the objects without any draft and another with a fan turned on. This added movement to the objects which could support the idea of a tornado and give life to the installation. On the other hand the installation could be even more striking if it is ‘frozen in time’ and having the objects sway in the breeze would not achieve this effect.

All of these questions will be discussed with the group at our next meeting because we can face these problems together incorporating each other’s ideas to find the best solution. These will have to be solved in good time before the installation because the time we install is limited; therefore we must have a plan be ready. The only time we should spend in the space is to put up the objects, not to experiment and discover, we can spend time doing that now. 

Caricatures: College Edition

Caricatures with Friends 

Sunday 17th April 2016

I created some caricatures of my friends for fun, but I it turned into an entertaining exercise of observation and exaggerated proportions. I definitely enjoyed drawing these and I intend to create more in the near future. I chose to draw friends from my old college (Stockport College).

I had to observe certain characteristics of the face and I chose to exaggerate certain parts of the face, some were unexpected which turned out to be funny. I used images on their social media accounts as a reference,  I chose images which had a sense of character or expression which I could express through the drawing.

I started with Jimmy Wilkensano- I found that the lips stood out because they were relaxed in the image and I wanted to exaggerate that expression through the lips. I would improve the top lip because it is slanted and reduce the size of the body to make the head out of proportion with the rest of the body.

The next one I created, Patricia Petrelli Wilkinsarno is the twin of Jimmy Wilkinsarno; therefore I applied the similar facial structure however expressing a totally different character. The image is rather blurry and he appears to be laughing, however in the sketch he appears rather 'posh' with his raised eyebrows and closed eyes.

'Danacious Nesbit' (aka Weeb God) was the next drawing I created. As his chin was rather low it gave quite a strong perspective and a great chance to express some sinister character. However I found this a challenge as I wanted to exaggerate his cheeks, and from a perspective they would have to be smaller as the head is closer to the audience.0.

I did try to have the eyes looking directly at the audience however I found this quite difficult to get them exactly right. Therefore I drew the eyes looking downwards; pleased with what he sees. (Whatever that may be...?)

This is one drawing I would like to re-visit to improve, to add a greater sense of depth through perspective and to express the character further.

.After that I created a sketch of 'Dilly the Willy'. I am particularly pleased  with the results of this sketch because I managed to exaggerate a part of the face which gives a great expression and sense of character. I also chose to shrink the neck and make the suit huge to further exaggerate proportions.

 'Nigella Hater' was an accidental yet funny result. I started with the head and neck as I wanted to exaggerate the shape of the neck as it is squashed in the photo. Then I moved onto the eyes which I intended to be apart as the eyes are not direct in the photo, however I over exaggerated this which produced a 'fish-like' appearance. I chose to keep the eyes that way because I found them too funny to change.

Finally 'Roberto "Treat Day" Llamertey' was the last drawing I produced on Sunday. This was a great photo which expresses such a 'not impressed' or 'leave me alone' character. which contrasts with the other sketches I produced. This drawing was exaggerated in a number of places but not overly exaggerated in a single place because I wanted the expression to be the focus of this drawing.

 

---BONUS---

As I produced these sketches, Mr Nesbit took it upon himself to produce a illustration in the likeness of myself.

In denial of his own 'weeb-ness' he claims I am, and I quote: "Mega Weeb" which is incomparable to the magnitude of a "Weeb God". He did not use a photograph as reference as he can't get me off his mind.

I have had great fun with creating these sketches and intend to produce more in the near future. This is both a great exercise and great fun to test my drawing abilities. It also acts as revision for observation and exaggeration of proportions.

Unit X Psychology Research

Sunday 17th April 2016 

Unit X Research:

Researching Mental Illness Linking to Depression (Giselle’s Mind)

Towards the end of act one, Giselle is betrayed by her lover and she quickly spirals into depression even to the point of committing suicide this contrast and sudden change of personality and emotions is a significant and striking moment during the ballet.

Therefore I have decided to continue my research into mental illness to better understand how Giselle must have felt at that moment of time; this way I will have a better idea on how to visualise this state of mind. As a group he had decided to create an installation which would grant an audience to step inside a “broken mind”.

--http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/193026.php--

After reading through this website I found something interesting; I had never thought about Giselle’s personality which could be described as bipolar.

Bipolar Disorder: “A mental condition marked by alternating periods of elation and depression.”

(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/bipolar-disorder) [17/4/16]

This can be supported by the idea that Giselle is extremely happy in the first act and finds ‘true love’ and then quickly spiralling into depression to the point of suicide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqOm922Fhx8 (Video of Ballet)

I will share this with the rest of the group at the next group meeting to further develop our ideas.

Unit X Group Talk 3

Monday 18th April 2016

Another group talk with the Unit X group. However only three of us showed up to the meeting where we had to share new ideas as well old ones to ensure everyone within the group understands what we intend to do. We discussed ideas involving the visual representation of mentally dislocated mind, and shared our research since the last meeting to develop our idea further.

I shred my research into the psychology of Giselle and how we can relate to mental illness such as ‘bi-polar disorder’ and depression. This could potentially add depth to our work into larger themes of psychology and even raise awareness of such conditions. Other members of the group also found it difficult to research world War One, specifically British attacks on German towns inhabited by citizens. Therefore I thought the best idea is to focus on the theme of Dislocation to ensure we do not stray from our objective, or lose the meaning of our work.

Asking psychology further we chose to focus on how to visually represent a dislocated mind, and we discussed the best way of expressing this. Because it is within the mind we intend the isolation to be rather abstract and have an impact on the audience. We discussed the idea of the war being a destructive force within the mind which is tearing the reality of the child apart as which is represented within his mind.

This how we started to talk about the idea of the child’s objects and thoughts being torn apart within a tornado which would break own into a single point. We have lightly touched upon how we are going to create the installation and practical problems we will face, however I feel that these ideas and problems cannot effectively progress with the absence of the group. In contrast the group understands that we will progress as planned with or without other group members to ensure we meet the deadline.

We produced sketches and notes to present at the meeting tomorrow when we will have to have a definite idea which we will choose to do. We understand that this idea may adapt in the future however this is the point of no return where we cannot significantly change our idea.

 

Notes taken during the session: