EGNM 2004

The Heron was left on a computer at uni which I cannot get to at this point.

Because of the one shot nature of this animation its not really nessiary to divide the animation up into a storyboard, however I have a story strip above, which shows the continuous background pan, in which the heron, jumping fish and bear are seen, as well as the fish, boat and boay.

I have decided to create the aforementioned hybird of 6 and 7 although it will take the form of another idea I have had subsiquent to the inital planning.

 The story is of a fish, (no not Nemo) who begins his life in the pond at the source of the river, he then swims down to the sea, on his way he faces a few threats as a Heron, thinks Salmon would make a tasty Bagle and the Bear things that tuna and pasta bake is on the menu for tonight.

He also sees his jumping fishy friends on the way to the river, they are going back inland however, and soon pass him. He finally reaches the ocean, where a boat passes him, he is not caught as it is not a fishing boat, he drifts off into the big wide world past the boay markers and out of the scene.

This animation is simple but the technique will be had, I have never before tried shadow puppets and so it will be new for me, I am instantly begining the planning process as I have a lot of work to do.

I will need the following puppets…

- Fish

- Heron

- Bear

- River Bank

- Boat

- Boay

- Jummping Fish

I will need the following materials…

Black card

Canes

String

Thin thread

Tape

Scalple

Acrylic

Foam Board

The various puppets will be made of black card, and some puppets will have additional materials such as the jumping fish which will be mounted onto a disk of acrylic, centre punched to make a wheel which can be fastened to the foam board creating a jumping fish spinner.

Unfortunately due to technical problems with the HDV Cams I could not import the original footage from my experimentation, however I bought a few materials just as a experiment to see how shadow puppets worked and if they were visually stimulating and acurate enough to provide a good animation. I was very happy with how a small amount of work enabled some quite pleasing results.

 Tony has also posted a video to an interesting show, and following that are some I liked.

http://www.blind.com/work/music-video/gap-sound-of-color-bw

The idea of combining 6 & 7 has really inspired me, and reminded me of a video aiden showed us.

This ties nicely in with the fact that Garth in a tutorial recommended looking into the work of Shynola.

With the last one Garth was talking about how the treatment is very simple, copying that of a SNES or similar, but that the real wow factor here was the animation, how it not just imitates the SNES games but also has a character of its own and feels quite natural, and smooth.

Tony said to take the footage we have and make it into a story, I have tried this but the video footage is not of things I necessarily wanted in my animation. However I have been brain storming ideas and come up with a few…

1. Walk in the rain – A story about a person taking a walk in the rain, showing the relaxing and calm emotions that person is experiencing.

2. Fairground – As I visited brighton beach a lot of my video was related to fairgrounds, so this is the story of a small boy, excited by the rides.

3. Visit to the beach – Much like 2 except beach instead of fair ground.

4. Science museum – Based in a faint childhood memory the animation tells the story of when i was young on a day trip to London where my dad and Grandad took me to the science museum, I have a lot of nostalgic memories, and feeling towards my Grandad who is no longer with us. 

5. Cat Attack – Walking down an ally way, a rustly, a meow, its a cat! The cat draws closer, and then another, and another, they appeared from no where, and they are after just one thing, MILK! They can sence the milk in the shopping bag and they want it, before I know it 1 hundred, 1 thousand, 1 million cats have decended on this ally way. They bundle me, and the camera fades back to reveal torn clothes, small scratches, and shredded Sainsburys bags.

6. Seasons – The concept is to show the seasons passing, a breif mindstorm….. Seasons in the sun, seasoned, seasons of life, seasoning (adding to).

 7. River – The flow of a river is akin to the flow of life, this ties in well with the above no 6 seasons.  

The first step for our projects is to capture some video, I have uploaded the videos to Flickr, at this address…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unknowndomain/sets/72157604667970359/

So what will the site show…

 + The 4 elements

+ Overhead signs

+ New / Replacement systems

Why replace existing systems. 

Where will they be used.

What stations should be upgraded 

+ Old upgrades

Why are we keeping old stuff.

What is involved. 

+ Information Point (Kiosk)

The problem at the moment

What this system is.

Where will it be rolled out.

What are the benefits.

How does is solve the problem.

Maintenance.

+ Central Information

+ For staff (PDAs)

Why do staff need PDAs.

What will they have access to.

How will this work. 

+ For customers (WiFi & Internet site)

Why do customers need this information.

What will they have access to.

How will it be accessed.

What are the costs.

+ Ticket Machines (Update)

+ Improvements

Refined interface (Larger text, standard interface on the whole network).

Faster (Roll out of more responsive screens & Make both printers operate at the same time).

More of them (At busy stations like Epsom).

+ Additions

Oyster card

Top up

Season tickets

Platform hint (When buying paper tickets) .

Things for tomorrow….

+  Research / Unit Workbook (THIS)

+ Interactive presentation (for overseas client)

This can be a CD or web presentation…

I will be producing a web presentation…

It will be a simple slideshow which will slide between frames.

To produce a kiosk it is important that the following be considered…

- indoor or outdoor
- vadalism
- crowd flow
- visability
- cleaning
- power failiure
- repair

In my tutorial today gavin Gareth and me were discussing the fact that there are two choices when building the kiosks… Either they are cheap and easy to replace / repair. Or they are expensive and more resilant to wear and damage just as the weather and vadalism.

I personally think a hybrid would be best making the unit hard wearing and resilient while making the screen. Cheap and easy to replace some what like the windows on the trains which often get scratched and smashed.

I think this is the right method because of does seem like this plan is already in use on ticket machines where the screens are far more susceptable to damage than the main unit.