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troviscursed · 4 years

Video

This is the developed upon animation that I have been making for project 7. I have edited in after effects, there isn’t really much of a story in this animation as I was just trying to focus on implementing my research instead of making something coherent. I think I may expand upon the concept shown in this animation in my Final Major Project.

In the opening section and all throughout the animation I have focused on using unnatural movements and shapes to create a sense of unease. The jittery lines create an illusion of the character shuddering slightly. Which inherently in conjunction with the setting can be seen as unsettling. I have created this illusion of shuddering as this makes less work for me than animating the character properly and as of right now fits with the style that I have made for myself. I am hoping to better my drawing on the computer and adapt my style along the way.

I am also experimenting with breaking the fourth wall by incorporating a slow zoom out of the animation. I have done this as breaking the fourth wall is a technique someone can use to create a sense of unease as the blending of the fictional world they are seeing and the world that they are living in can be disturbing depending on who is seeing it. The zoom out doesn’t progress into anything in the animation itself and I wanted to create an effect as if it was an animation within an animation. Where you are watching someone watch the original animation.

In the second scene where there is an abrupt cut to the character’s face; I have made it so the character’s eyelids don’t move at once and that the right eye has the eyelid closing from the bottom. I have done this to create an otherworldly effect and slightly disturb the audience as what they are seeing the audience know that it looks wrong and unnatural.

Moreover, I wanted to get better at using depth in my animations and making the 2D images look more like a 3D space. I have done this by drawing an image of a wooden chair on Photoshop and then placing it into the After Effects composition on a separate layer. Then I used the virtual camera tool and moved the chair and original animation which was now acting as a background layer along the z axis. This made it look as if the chair was now on a separate plane to the background and not blending in as another part of the background.

I have done this to create a more realistic looking space or a space that looks like it is actually a space instead of just different images on a background. I have also tried to improve my use of shadows, I have done this by focusing on the light sources and what would actually be casting a shadow and how the shadow would react to the scenery around it; however the shadows when I try to use them with a human character end up looking as if the character has been placed on top of the scene instead of a part of the scene itself.

This effect happens because the way the shadow works looks as if the character is a cardboard cut out as the shadow doesn’t bend and is only really a black smudge on the wall area behind the character. I need to research on how shadows work and how to place them along angles and the floor in relation to the human body and where the light is coming from. This would very much help me to create a more realised space as the elements that help create the space would act more how they would in real life.

However, a problem that my arise when experimenting to make a more realistic space is that this may take away from the unnatural/otherworldly effect I am trying to create in my animations as things would be more recognizable. However this could also work in my favour and this is because as the juxtaposition of a realised more realistic space with the unnatural or disturbing animation could make an unsettling atmosphere as the dissonance of two different worlds could disturb some viewers.

The reason there is a black void at the end is just because I forgot to cut it and for some reason it took 40 minutes to render and I’m not doing that again.

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troviscursed · 4 years

Photo

This is the start of my experimental animation for project 7. Which I have converted into a gif for now as this will show it best as there is not much of it yet. I think I am going to make a sort of short precursor to “Fraser” as for my Final Major Project I want to create an expanded “Fraser” animation and add more story into it so I could eventually make a whole story out of my animations.

This is just the start of the experimental animation and I do need to do more and edit it in Premiere Pro with sound effects. I think that what I have made right now is in my distinct style that I used for Fraser but improved as I am using references for the backgrounds now and understand how to use colour better and this has definitely improved my understanding of depth and how to create it.

When thinking of my research I think that it does fit into that uncanny realm and does look slightly unsettling because there is something wrong with the movement. The character himself isn’t moving but the erratic jagged lines create an illusion of movement which is unnatural and the strange setting helps to create a sense of unease as you are actually able to tell that the character is in a space instead of having shapes floating in space around him.

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troviscursed · 4 years

Photo

I’ve started to experiment with drawing a background to help improve my skills and understanding of how to realise a world. Backgrounds are a weak spot for me as I find it difficult to draw them without making it just look like shapes in a box instead of an expansive area/scene. I’m using different brush sizes to create a sense of depth so it looks as if things are further away. If they were all the same size brush they would all look like they were on the same plane.

I am going to experiment with different light sources and how it affects the world around it and the shadows it casts on different objects.

My background is based on a forest background image I found on Google and I think it looks pretty okay.

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troviscursed · 4 years

Text

Started To Experiment

I’ve started to experiment with making something that relates to the research that I’ve done. I want to continue to improve my knowledge in using depth and creating an actual realised space more succinctly. I feel like I have made a good start trying to do this and it looks like something that I could develop quite well. I don’t have ideas of what this could turn into as of now but I think that I could put sound effects into it quite well to create a mood and feeling to the whole thing. Moreover I think that the drawings in this are a style that I will try and develop in my animations. It’s somewhat uncanny but very simple and could be seen as cute which is the style that fits me and is one that I can do quite well. I feel like looking into how light works and how this will affect the entire scene and help improve my depth in this experiment and my knowledge on depth.

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troviscursed · 4 years

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Revised Research Essay

After researching into my specialist study of the creepy in animation I have discovered that there are many aspects that go towards making something unsettling or creepy but ultimately lead towards one primary idea that makes things unsettling. I have also found out that there is a large correlation between horror and comedy and that aspects from both can be implemented in their counterpart’s genre and will have a desired effect. This is where a creepy or unsettling mood can come from. The mixing of horror and comedy elements, because both genres in theory are both outlandish and surreal but in different ways. The mixing of the two creates a sort of discourse so the person watching is unable to make of what they are seeing; ergo leaving them with a sense of unease or discomfort. The feeling of being “creeped out.”

Moreover I have decided that to go deeper into my specialist study and focus on a specific element within it. I have decided to research further into the unnatural and unsettling music/audio. The reason for this is because in my animations I have noticed that I use a lot of unsettling audio in my animations to create a mood. I want to research more into this so I am able to utilise it more effectively. This is because at the moment I only really mash random creepy sounds together and it can come off as a bit overpowering or like the sounds don’t necessarily add much and I should research how to use more simple methods but still create a desired unsettling effect. Secondly; I want to research deeper into the unnatural as I think unnatural shapes and characters/images are things that I would be best at replicating in my animations. The way I draw is naturally unpolished and disturbing to an extent. So if I researched how to improve drawing in an unnatural purposely disturbing way I think that this could heighten the quality of my animations.

The sense of being creeped out essentially stems from one simple idea that the human brain is unable to grasp properly. This idea being the sense of ambiguity. Mystery. The human brain is amazing at finding patterns and making sense of the world around it so as soon as the ability to do that is stripped away the brain doesn’t know what to do with the information it’s been given. Therefore making you uneasy as your brain is trying to figure out what you are looking at. The thing that creeps people out is the unknown, the ambiguity of what they are looking at. This is because of an innate fear of being attacked or being in danger. When we see something unsettling or creepy this makes our brain go to a place between safety and danger. We know that what we are seeing is unable to harm us in any way but there is a subconscious thought that it could. This uncertainty that we feel is what makes something unsettling, we are unable to discern whether we are in immediate danger.

Going back to what I said before about the human brain being amazing at spotting patterns; this links to the idea that our brains are so used to seeing familiar things such as human faces all the time and normalizing it so therefore when we see something that is unfamiliar our brains don’t know how to feel about the information it’s been given. Again linking to the idea of ambiguity being the things that disturbs us, this unfamiliar thing is not normalized to us so we are unaware of what it can do. This is why many people find masks disturbing, particularly masks that don’t show emotions, this is because it is something close to what we see everyday but slightly off, moreover it conceals emotions and potentially people’s true intentions. Bringing it back to the idea of being between safety and danger.

Essentially the things we are seeing aren’t really the things that are disturbing us. It is the idea and conflicting emotions that we are feeling which makes us feel a strange sense of fear and worry even though we know logically that we shouldn’t be fearful. The thing that makes it creepy is the sense of ruining someone’s sense of familiarity. This is why what people find creepy is very subjective. This is because of what people are familiar with is all different and when they see that familiarity taken away it disturbs them but when shown to someone that is unfamiliar with what they are being shown it probably wouldn’t disturb them.

Michael Stevens said that (paraphrased) If we use the example of a baby this can be explained easily. A baby of about 2 months to 1 and a half years would not be familiarized with the human face yet. This means that if a baby that young is shown an image of a scary face, for example an image of the girl from the exorcist they wouldn’t be scared by it. This is because they do not know that they should be afraid of what they are seeing as they aren’t familiarized with it yet. To them it is just another thing to look at. To me; this shows that fears are something learnt through experience and it is possible to bypass things that you could potentially find creepy.

This is very similar to how people react when confronted with the uncanny valley. The uncanny valley is an area when looking at objects and images where the familiarity or the “humanness” becomes so realistic that it almost looks wrong but you can’t really explain why. The uncanny valley lies somewhere between a human face and a teddy bear. For example an android, it looks human, scarily so but you can tell that there is something about it that makes it not. The more something looks like a human or something we are familiar with the fondness of the object goes up.

However when the object gets too close to human likeness we feel uncomfortable as human faces are something we see every day. Again this reinforces the idea that we are creeped out by the familiar becoming unfamiliar as this gives us a sense of ambiguity as we don’t fully understand why we are disturbed by it, sort of creating a cycle. We are disturbed due to something being unfamiliar but familiar in some ways at the same time which creates ambiguity in what we are seeing.

Michael Stevens also stated that (paraphrased) there are two main types of fear and elements of being scared that are shown in horror media. There is horror, and there is terror. Terror is just being scared in the moment, a jumpscare for example, you’re scared in that short moment and a worried for your safety very briefly but soon after you know that you are fine. You’re terrified for that short moment, terror is just being affected for a short moment and then you’re fine. Whereas horror leaves a lasting effect upon whoever views the horrifying thing. You are worried for some time after you see it and you feel scared after viewing it. You’re horrified, this is what a good piece of horror media does, it affects you afterwards and you’re left feeling uncomfortable. This is the realm that being unsettled and creepy imagery/ things fall under. This makes me think that overall horror is more effective to present to an audience, a looming sense of dread would be more impactful than a quick scare. Although a jumpscare can be earned but this is usually through the anticipation. Most of the time the anticipation is scarier than the actual outcome and this is due to an innate fear of the unknown that most people have.

Creepy imagery has the ability to leave you feeling unsettled after you view it if it is effective enough and disturbs you well enough. This is exactly the effect I want to have in my animations. I want to show something unsettling that is clearly in my own style but tell a compelling story that I can pull from my own experiences at the same time. I want the story that I tell to be ambiguous but improved upon from “Fraser.” The story in that was too ambiguous for its own good, it didn’t have a coherency to it and this is something that I want to improve, I want to tell a story that the viewer has to think about but is still very clearly a story.

Moreover, I have looked further into Aphantasia; a problem that I think I have. Aphantasia is a condition where the person afflicted is unable to visualise images/ objects in their head or only very faintly. A lack of a mind’s eye to use an analogy. For me it means that I can’t see images in my head at all, I think in words instead of images, this means that I find it very hard to draw and create a scene for an animation or design a character; I’m unable to imagine what I want what I’m drawing to look like. This is also why I find it hard to plan my animations and draw storyboards. I’m unable to imagine how I want the scenes to look and progress.

Clemens. A wrote “ When The Mind’s Eye Is Blind” on August 1 2018 and talks about how many people with Aphantasia can still have successful careers in the creative field and have found ways to be creative without needing to visualise a final outcome. Most people with Aphantasia are able to perceive and complete visual problems the same as people without Aphantasia. Clemens A read into a test subject referred to as “MX”, who was tested for Aphantasia and he had to say which was darker in colour; grass or a pine tree and he correctly said a pine tree. “He insisted that he had used no visual imagery to make the decision “I just know the answer” “ wrote Clemens A. To me this tells me that even with Aphantasia you can be creative but this is mostly through experience and not thinking about what something could be but what you are making in the moment. For example, I know what I want to draw; for example I want to draw someone’s hair blowing in the wind but I just don’t know how to draw it but I know what I want the final outcome to be but I just can’t visualise how I would get there.

This is why my planning is usually lacklustre and my storyboards are unfinished and look rushed; I want to get it out of the way as I get frustrated because I can’t think of how to draw my ideas. Therefore my artwork usually looks rushed and not as good as it could be, this is because I am guessing what to draw and how to draw things and this is why I tend to do things as I go, I find it easier than planning out things because when I try to plan things I end up getting stuck and I never used to know what the problem is. However now I know what it is I think that focusing on something (the unnatural) that my drawings naturally fall under; would help me improve in my planning skills as I would gather more information and experience on how to utilise this part of how I think to the fullest and create something I could be proud of and know that I had actually planned it to the best of my ability. I think in words so if I focus on improving this in terms of drawing unnatural things, I think this could help me immensely when making animations.

This disturbs us as we still recognise that what we are hearing was once a song and could’ve sounded harmonic but the reversal of it makes notes clash and feel wrong. This makes us disturbed as we feel like what we are hearing is unearthly and that we shouldn’t be hearing it, essentially it is very akin to the uncanny valley; except with auditory stimulus; so it’s almost right but not quite. instead of visual. When talking about reversed audio the reasons we find it unsettling are the same as reversed music just instead of the notes feeling wrong, the dialogue or the sound effects have the wrong dynamics and wrong inflections at the wrong places. Therefore making it feel wrong. This information I found on the YouTube video “The Psychology Of Creepy Music” by the YouTube channel “No Note Unturned” the video was published on June 17 2016.

However when it comes to unsettling audio, people naturally have a sort of attraction to it. There is an otherworldly appeal to the audio that makes people want to listen to it. There is a French term “L’appel du vide.” which translates to “the call of the void” I read an article by Goldfarb K which was published on February 16 2018 titled “Ever Stood On A Ledge And Thought “ I Could Jump?” There’s A Phrase For That” Goldfarb K wrote (paraphrased) this is a phenomenon that occurs within people when faced with a potentially self destructive option in front of them. The self destructive option is the strongest emotion or feeling that a person can feel at that moment, this is conflicting to a person, and you know that you shouldn’t do it but it is strangely appealing as it is the option with the most immediate effect at that moment. This is what happens when we hear disturbing or unsettling audio, it comes back to the idea of being between safety and danger, our brains don’t know if what we are hearing could potentially harm us although we know logically that it can’t so we assume that it could be destructive and hence are attracted to listening to the disturbing audio. It is otherworldly and has a sort of sense of whimsy which makes listening to it desirable.

No Note Unturned stated (paraphrased) Moreover, auditory glitches are commonly used in disturbing audio. Such as purposeful dissonance, ambient noises being put in the background solely to unsettle and overlapping sounds that don’t fit together. All of these elements work together to create something unsettling and that is all there to do really. They help to create a mood or feeling to whatever you’re creating, this is the power that audio has in an animation, the audio can completely change the mood or sometimes even genre of something. For example, if you take a jump scare and completely remove the sound and only have a sudden spooky face it is nowhere near as scary, you could call it comedic even.

This is where the overlap between horror and comedy arises. Essentially, they are almost the same genre, they are both outlandish genres with usually out there concepts. That’s why horror comedies are really effective films. They blend two genres that you would think are polar opposites but are actually very similar; this is why many people find horror movies funny. What they are seeing in slasher films is essentially just very gory slapstick comedy. In its nature it is funny and if you perhaps removed the blood it wouldn’t be out of place in a comedy film. The difference between horror and comedy is the mood of the film, horror is commonly dark and gritty, and comedy, aside from dark comedy is livelier and brighter in comparison; the thing separating the two is just people’s perception of what they are seeing. The reason people can find things that are meant to be comedic disturbing is the same reason why people can find purposely disturbing things funny; it is your own perception of what you are seeing and the audio direction and general look of what you are viewing has a great impact on this.

Overall, in my future animations unless I decide to focus on a completely different genre I will implement the factors I’ve stated above: the uncanny valley, the unsettling audio, the conflicting ideas, perhaps some comedic elements. I think if I implemented comedic elements this could have a really good effect in my animations. I feel like it could potentially look wrong or just feel wrong. Which as mentioned before; the reason we find things unsettling is essentially because it feels wrong to us or it is something we normally see being unfamiliarised. I am most looking forward to actually improving my planning skills as this something I really struggle with and if I improve it the entire quality of my animations will increase and my confidence in what I can do as well.

However when I get better as an animator I will need to find my way around 3D animation and know the possibilities of it and if I had to potentially use 3D animation instead of 2D. Tim Burton wrote “ I had all these weird drawings which nobody believed could be brought into the third dimension.” In the book “Burton on Burton revised edition” published in 1995. I feel like the way I draw is quite reminiscent of Tim Burton’s early drawings. I’ve been told that I draw in a similar style to him and this is what made me want to research more into him. I found the information that he worked for Disney as a concept artist but his ideas were more commonly shut down than taken on board. Therefore he wanted to explore making things where he could express and show his own style.

This developed into him delving into 3D animation. Specifically stop motion, “Vincent.” I think that stop motion could be something that I could develop my skills in as stop motion is easy to make something uncanny in as the movements you see in stop motion are naturally slightly unnerving and jumpy. I also think that I could effectively involve sound effects if I delved into stop motion animation. The quote that Tim Burton said makes me think that my drawings could be realised in stop motion and look unnerving. However I want my animations to not be specifically creepy but unnatural but could be seen as cute depending on how you see it.

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troviscursed · 4 years

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Reference List For Project 7

Book “Burton on Burton revised edition” Burton T. Edited by Mark Salisbury. Foreword by Johnny Depp. First published in the United Kingdom in 1995 by Faber and Faber Limited. 3 Queen Square London WCIN 3AU. A Revised Edition first published in 2000. This Revised Edition first published in 2006. Printed in England by Mackays of Chatham, plc

Website Article “When The Mind’s Eye Is Blind” Clemens A. Published on August 1 2018; accessed on December 5 2019 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-minds-eye-is-blind1/

Book “The Animator’s Eye, Adding Life To Animation with Timing, Layout, Design, Color and Sound” Glebas F. First published in 2013 by Focal Press. 70 Blanchard Road, Suite 402, Burlington, MA 01803. Simultaneously published in the UK by Focal Press. 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Book “Animation A Handy Guide, FROM PASTELS TO PIXELS” Graber S. First published in 2009 by A & C Black Publishers Ltd. 36 Soho Square London W1D 3QY. Printed and bound in China by C&C Offset Printing Company Ltd.

YouTube Video “Why Are Things Creepy” Stevens M/Vsauce. Published on July 2 2013; accessed on December 2 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEikGKDVsCc

YouTube Video “The Psychology Of Creepy Music” No Note Unturned. Published on June 17 2016; accessed on December 2 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8xeFLu0T8k&t=1s

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troviscursed · 4 years

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Research On My Specialist Study

Essentially the things we are seeing aren’t really the things that are disturbing us. It is the idea and conflicting emotions that we are feeling which makes us feel a strange sense of fear and worry even though we know logically that we shouldn’t be fearful. However the image or whatever the person is looking at can be an unsettling image anyway although the thing that makes it creepy is the sense of ruining someone’s sense of familiarity. This is why what people find creepy is very subjective. This is because of what people are familiar with is all different and when they see that familiarity taken away it disturbs them but when shown to someone that is unfamiliar with what they are being shown it probably wouldn’t disturb them.

If we use the example of a baby this can be explained easily. A baby of about 2 months to 1 and a half years would not be familiarized with the human face yet. This means that if a baby that young is shown an image of a scary face, for example an image of the girl from the exorcist they wouldn’t be scared by it. This is because they do not know that they should be afraid of what they are seeing as they aren’t familiarized with it yet. To them it is just another thing to look at. Again linking back to the idea that the removal of familiarity and the introduction of safety ambiguity is what makes people discomforted and unsettled.

However when the object gets too close to human likeness we feel uncomfortable as human faces are something we see every day but when they are unfamiliarised even slightly we feel uncomfortable as the thing we are seeing could very easily be human if something changed. We are so good at finding faces in even objects as the brain always wants to look for patterns and familiarize the world around it so we see faces in cars or houses which many people will see as cute as it is very clearly not a human but has some human features which is appealing to most people. However when it comes to the uncanny valley the human face or figure is brought to the forefront so much on something that is very clearly not human that it looks wrong.

Again this reinforces the idea that we are creeped out by the familiar becoming unfamiliar as this gives us a sense of ambiguity as we don’t fully understand why we are disturbed by it, sort of creating a cycle. We are disturbed due to something being unfamiliar but familiar in some ways at the same time which creates ambiguity in what we are seeing. Therefore, the thing that disturbs us overall is the sense of ambiguity, this is because it is ambiguous whether we are in immediate danger or not. We know we aren’t but we feel as if we are and these conflicting ideas confuse us, making us disturbed. We are trying to decide between two opposite ideas of safety and danger and at the moment of being disturbed we don’t know which is the correct answer; which disturbs us.

Moreover, there are two main types of fear and elements of being scared that are shown in horror media. There is horror, and there is terror. Terror is just being scared in the moment, a jumpscare for example, you’re scared in that short moment and a worried for your safety very briefly but soon after you know that you are fine. You’re terrified for that short moment, terror is just being affected for a short moment and then you’re fine. Whereas horror leaves a lasting effect upon whoever views the horrifying thing. You are worried for some time after you see it and you feel scared after viewing it. You’re horrified, this is what a good piece of horror media does, it affects you afterwards and you’re left feeling uncomfortable. This is the realm that being unsettled and creepy imagery/ things fall under. Creepy imagery has the ability to leave you feeling unsettled after you view it if it is effective enough and disturbs you well enough. This is exactly the effect I want to have in my animations. I want to show something unsettling that is clearly in my own style but tell a compelling story that I can pull from my own experiences at the same time. I want the story that I tell to be ambiguous but improved upon from “Fraser.” The story in that was too ambiguous for its own good, it didn’t have a coherency to it and this is something that I want to improve, I want to tell a story that the viewer has to think about but is still very clearly a story.

This is why my planning is usually lacklustre and my storyboards are unfinished and look rushed; I want to get it out of the way. Therefore my artwork usually looks rushed and not as good as it could be, this is because I am guessing what to draw and how to draw things and this is why I tend to do things as I go, I find it easier than planning out things because when I try to plan things I end up getting stuck and I never used to know what the problem is. However now I know what it is I think that focusing on something (the unnatural) that my drawings naturally fall under; would help me improve in my planning skills as I would gather more information and experience on how to utilise this part of how I think to the fullest and create something I could be proud of and know that I had actually planned it to the best of my ability. I think in words so if I focus on improving this in terms of drawing unnatural things, I think this could help me immensely when making animations.

Furthermore, when researching into creepy or unsettling audio/music there are few elements that go into making it so however they all link back to one central idea, which is the idea that unsettling sounds or music just sound wrong. Otherworldly. One way of doing this is to reverse audio, if this is done to a piece of music, especially one that you’ve heard before this unsettles us because the reversed music still has the same notes as the normal version but they’re played in the wrong order and the dynamics are essentially going backwards. For example it will get louder when it’s supposed to get quieter or vice versa. This disturbs us as we still recognise that what we are hearing was once a song and could’ve sounded harmonic but the reversal of it makes notes clash and feel wrong. This makes us disturbed as we feel like what we are hearing is unearthly and that we shouldn’t be hearing it, essentially it is very akin to the uncanny valley; except with auditory stimulus; so it’s almost right but not quite. instead of visual. When talking about reversed audio the reasons we find it unsettling are the same as reversed music just instead of the notes feeling wrong, the dialogue ir the sound effects have the wrong dynamics and wrong inflections at the wrong places. Therefore making it feel wrong.

However when it comes to unsettling audio, people naturally have a sort of attraction to it. There is an otherworldly appeal to the audio that makes people want to listen to it. There is a French term “L’appel du vide” which translates to “the call of the void” this is a phenomenon that occurs within people when faced with a potentially self destructive option in front of them. The self destructive option is the strongest emotion or feeling that a person can feel at that moment, this is conflicting to a person, and you know that you shouldn’t do it but it is strangely appealing as it is the option with the most immediate effect at that moment. This is what happens when we hear disturbing or unsettling audio, it comes back to the idea of being between safety and danger, our brains don’t know if what we are hearing could potentially harm us although we know logically that it can’t so we assume that it could be destructive and hence are attracted to listening to the disturbing audio. It is otherworldly and has a sort of sense of whimsy which makes listening to it desirable.

Moreover, auditory glitches are commonly used in disturbing audio. Such as purposeful dissonance, ambient noises being put in the background solely to unsettle and overlapping sounds that don’t fit together. All of these elements work together to create something unsettling and that is all there to do really. They help to create a mood or feeling to whatever you’re creating, this is the power that audio has in an animation, the audio can completely change the mood or sometimes even genre of something. For example, if you take a jump scare and completely remove the sound and only have a sudden spooky face it is nowhere near as scary, you could call it comedic even.

This is where the overlap between horror and comedy arises. Essentially, they are almost the same genre, they are both outlandish genres with usually out there concepts. That’s why horror comedies are really effective films. They blend two genres that you would think are polar opposites but are actually very similar, this is why many people find horror movies funny. What they are seeing in slasher films is essentially just very gory slapstick comedy. In its nature it is funny and if you perhaps removed the blood it wouldn’t be out of place in a comedy film. The difference between horror and comedy is the mood of the film, horror is commonly dark and gritty, and comedy, aside from dark comedy is livelier and brighter in comparison; the thing separating the two is just people’s perception of what they are seeing. The reason people can find things that are meant to be comedic disturbing is the same reason why people can find purposely disturbing things funny; it is your own perception of what you are seeing and the audio direction and general look of what you are viewing has a great impact on this.

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troviscursed · 4 years

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Notes For My Research

Look Into Surrealist Art/Animation

Have an idea that I should make an experimental animation of a door being knocked and the person being scared but the audience not knowing why but finding out at the end. I’m thinking the idea is that the person is somewhere secluded where it’s only them but they get a knock at the door at night. The knocks will continue and they will open the door but the video will cut and then the sound effects of maybe a doors hinges will continue then the video would end or something like this. I need to decide properly and experiment with what works, I’m thinking of going back to the style I used in Fraser. So the lines are rapidly moving but there isn’t much actual movement of the characters/ objects seen. So I’m thinking of having the rapid lines but having the character move as well.

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troviscursed · 4 years

Photo

A mind map that I made that collated my first ideas about what can make an animation scary or how things can make you feel uncomfortable and creeped out. This will definitely guide me in what to write about, I think that I am going to focus on how audio can make an animation creepy and the unnatural/ambiguity in the visuals that make something creepy.

I also got some ideas for this mind map from a few videos that I watched on YouTube

“Why Are Things Creepy” Michael Stevens/Vsauce Published on July 2 2013; accessed on December 2 2019

“The Psychology Of Creepy Music” No Note Unturned Published on June 17 2016; accessed on December 2 2019

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troviscursed · 4 years

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Evaluation Of Advert Animation

Research for this project mainly consisted of watching different types of adverts and trying to collect ideas and inspiration from them. Moreover, I also researched advertising techniques and some audience theory. The advertising techniques I researched were: Pathos, Logos, Ethos, these terms basically describe how you want to come off to the audience, Pathos is an emotional connection, Logos is a logical connection and Ethos is an ethical connection. I also researched terminology such as "The Hypodermic Needle" theory, these audience theories explain how the audience will retain and react to information, this specific example explains how the information is "injected" into the audience. Moreover, I made a survey and asked for feedback on how people would respond to the product I am trying to advertise. I also experimented with some short practice animations and concept sketches to get an idea of how I wanted my advert to go and to give me an idea of how to go about doing this.

Furthermore, I also researched into target audiences and how to best appeal to them, I knew that I wanted to make an advert that was family friendly that anyone could watch but was aimed towards adults/elderly people. I found out that the best way to do this was to make a cartoon but have a darker side to it and a message that can better appeal to older people. The best way to appeal to a target audience is to find out what they would like to view the most and then incorporate those things in what you make. I found out that older people would be more responsive to pathos, so they will get an emotional attachment to the advert, this would in turn help to advertise the product beyond than just the look or function of the product but a deeper message behind the product while keeping the advert family friendly by not containing anything obscene.

After some secondary research by looking on the internet about television broadcasting I needed to make sure that my advert was something that could be shown before the watershed. The watershed is at 9 PM and it is the time when television channels are allowed to broadcast adult programs on the TV, I needed to assure this so all people that could be affected by my advert were able to view it. Although in theory this could be a detriment to me because if the advert was shown after the watershed instead I think that it would be more likely of my target audience (older people) of seeing my advert and being enticed to buy the product.

When researching for target audience I also came across niche audience and mass audience. Niche audience is a group within target audience and describes the small group that could really be affected by your advert or it could mean that your advert could only really appeal to a select group of people. For example, if your target audience was teenagers your niche audience could be goths. etc. For my advert I decided that I niche audience I could try to appeal to could be parents, this is because the product I am advertising (bear gloves) would appeal mostly to younger children but the person buying the product would be the parent so I needed my advert to appeal to the adults so they would be more enticed to buy the product for their child. Moreover, mass audience is simply a term for audience as a whole, basically everybody that could see your advert.

For my primary research, I think that it is satisfactory. I made a survey and asked questions about whether how seriously people would take the product and whether they would be interested in buying it. Most of the results that I got were what I was expecting to get anyway. However I did find out that my product could be used universally and if people were given the option to wear them when cold, they may think about using them. This meant that when I was planning my advert and what to do with it I had to keep in mind that the advert has to be able to appeal to people other than children.

Originally my target audience was just children but after the survey I changed my course to try and appeal to older people, this then developed into my target audience of adults while keeping the advert child friendly. This is because I am much more comfortable making animations for a more mature audience as I can relate to them better and I don't really know what children like. I could have expanded my repertoire by doing more secondary research on how to appeal to children through animations and what they actually like; I know it's bright colours, cartoons. etc however I don't know much more beyond that, I don't know anybody much younger than me so I wasn't able to research from my own life so I kind of gave up with the concept, Although if I put more effort into actually researching how I could appeal to children this would have given me more insight into how to put more personality into my animations and vary what I can actually do.

I could have improved my primary research by putting less vague questions in my survey and questions that would've actually helped me in deciding what to do for my animation. Most of my questions I already knew the answer to so I didn't put much effort into it. This is a recurring problem that I'm facing, I don't really know how about doing primary research so I mostly give up when it comes to actually doing it. Although I am aware that it is very important I just haven't applied myself to do it properly and this is still something that I need to improve.

My secondary research was also satisfactory, it wasn't anything special, I mostly just watched examples of adverts on YouTube and then analysed them afterwards to see if they were Pathos, Logos or Ethos and analysed how effective they were in captivating me and whether they successfully appealed to their target audience. (Or what I thought their target audience was.) Honestly this didn't really give me much insight on to what to do for my animation. However I did find out that the adverts that appealed to me most where adverts that had simple stories and were Pathos, these left me with a longer lasting impact and I actually remembered the advert after.

This helped me to realise that I should make an advert that is Pathos, this would be easier for me as I know this is what appeals to me and I'd have a better understanding of what to put in the advert, such as a character and a setting that can make you feel sympathy for the character to create an emotional connection to the character and the advert by proxy. Making you more inclined to use the product.

The problem with my secondary research is that there aren't many examples of animated 2D adverts that are darker in theme so this left me rather limited in what inspiration I could pull from them. I could have replicated this by searching for research in other media, there are a lot of books that go into advertising and audience theory and this would've definitely helped me in how to improve planning for my animation and give me more ideas for pathos specifically. There are also many books on 2D animation, I can use this to get more ideas and tips to help improve my practical animation skills to make it look nicer but to also help my animation theory and give me more insight in to what to actually put in my animation to make it as appealing as possible.

Moreover, I also researched personas in adverts; personas are characters or spokespeople that represent what you are advertising. Companies use personas to help appeal to consumers on a wider scale. Having a character in your advert gives the audience a longer lasting impression of your advert, having something people can relate to in your advert makes the thing you're trying to advertise more appealing. This gave me inspiration to start designing a character for my animation, before this I didn't have any idea for what to do for my advert but after finding out about personas I decided that I needed a fleshed out character for my advert that helps to tell a short story that links to the product I'm trying to advertise. This is an improvement from my prior projects, before I didn't actually have a character design, only a simple drawing of a person's body with no features. If I used an actual persona in my prior projects (specifically Fraser) I think that this would've improved it.

My experimental research was rather simple, I made some practice animations and a few concept sketches and a first try at creating a persona for my animation. However the first practice animation I made alongside a classmate was very beneficial; the animation we made together was in a PSA style while advertising a product. This actually gave me me a lot of inspiration for my own advert.

Originally I was planning to have something that very clearly advertises the product and doesn't have much beyond that but that never really sat well with me. I'm much more suited to making more serious things or things with meanings, therefore after experimenting with making a PSA esque advert I was sure that this is the direction I wanted my animation to go in. This was actually rather simple to implement in my animation, I just needed to have a serious tone and add in some text at the end that clearly advertised the product. It's more so a satire on PSA advertising rather than an actual PSA; this is because a lot of PSAs can come off as overly serious, this is what we did in the practice advert, make it overly serious for what it was. An idea that I want to replicate in my own advert.

We could've improved this practice animation by actually planning it, we didn't even plan what we were going to do, we just decided on an idea and just threw whatever we had at Animate. Secondly, the concept sketches that I made were only very basic however they did give me a clear idea of how I wanted to background and the scene to look. I successfully recreated the scene in Animate.

However I was quite stuck on what to use for a persona, I was struggling between an actual cartoon bear or a human for a persona and I decided that the human was better overall, and this was because I did try and draw the bear and it took far to long to make it look good and I would get better results by drawing a human character. Furthermore, before creating my persona I did a short exercise where we experimented with having a first try at a persona and I found out that it is much easier to give traits to a human character than a non human character. Moreover I would've had to change the whole story and setting of the animation if I had a bear as the persona and not the human character that I created.

In my opinion my planning in this project could have been improved quite a bit, I don't think that a lot of my planning actually helped me in completing my advert. My planning mainly consisted of saying what my product was made of and planning what to say to appeal to my as of then target audience of children but keeping the advert able to let the adults get something out of it. I also analysed an advert that shared themes of giving and slight loneliness which were both themes I wanted to explore in my animation. I said that the animation inspired me and that I wanted to try expressing the same message as the advert.

In my planning I didn't keep in mind the option that my ideas would change so because of this I was trying to make something uplifting when that is really not my forte. Therefore I had to change my tune rather quickly but it wasn't much of a problem, it was just kind of annoying but easily rectified. Moreover I made a quick practice animation that was in my usual style but had a more wholesome feel to the animation. This gave me a better understanding of how to make my animation look that would appeal to my target audience but remain in the style that I am comfortable with.

My planning however didn't actually have much practical content, it was mainly brainstorming and idea crafting of what to put in my animation and not experimenting. If I made a storyboard or more concept sketches other than the first scene and a few character sketches I would've had a more succinct clue of what I actually wanted to do. A storyboard would've really helped me in deciding where to go for my animation as I was making stuff up as I go along and this meant that I didn't really know how to edit the animation as I didn't actually have a clear picture of what I wanted to show and was hoping that what I put together just made sense. More controlled and directed planning would've limited these problems as I would've known what to do more clearly.

My practical work was rather standard, I made the entire animation on Adobe Animate and edited it together with the sound on Adobe Premiere Pro. In this project I believe that my technical skills when using Animate have improved from my last project. I think that my digital drawing skills have gotten better. I have cleaner lines and the things I draw look more like objects rather than random shapes on a coloured background. Before my lines were very messy and my drawings had a stye but didn't look too polished. Whereas now my drawings still have the style that I have made for myself now but are just cleaner overall and look nicer than what they did before.

However a skill that I improved on Animate was the use of depth when drawing a scene and how lighting affects the environment and how it reacts to the environment as well. The way I experimented with using the depth was by having the background element have thinner lines and colours that are paler. this brings less attention to these elements and instead of them just looking smaller; they look as if they are further away in the scene. The effect that I was going for was to simulate a 3D space while only having object on a 2D plane. I feel like the effect that I was going for actually worked quite well. The space looks believable and makes sense if you think about the objects being in a 3D space. Moreover, I experimented with how lighting works with depth, the way I did this was by adding shadows behind the foreground objects to show that they are casting a shadow on the wall behind them. Then I added light coming from behind them to show that there is light coming from the outside.

A problem that I faced when placing this light was that it didn't look like it was coming in from the outside and through the window. It looked as if it was placed on top of the window. The way I tried to replicate this was by moving the lighting layer underneath the window layer; turning the colour blocks into symbols and adding a blur and glow effect to simulate lighting coming in through the window. then tweening the lighting to slowly expand over time. This did somewhat fix the problem, the light no longer looked as if it was on top of the window however it looked as if it was now on the same plane and just growing rather than coming in through the window.

I tried to find videos that explain my problem but nothing really came up. They only explained how to add lighting which is something that I am already aware of how to do. Another problem with the depth that I faced was the shadows. Before I fixed the listing I had a soft shadow around only the character but it was the entirety of the character. This didn't make sense in the world I was trying to create. The shadow that was being cast looked as if the light was shining on her in equal measure all around, this is why I had to change the shadow to be darker and more solid on the side of her body while also being cast on the other objects as that made more sense in how I placed the lighting in this scene.

The lighting however was improved from my previous project, it wasn't as harsh looking and actually looked more as if it was coming from a light source rather than it was placed on top to simulate that the object is creating light. I think this works well in the animation and helps to create a more realised world.

The item that I decided to advertise were bear gloves; essentially these were finger less gloves that imitate the shape of a bear paw. I chose to advertise this product because the gloves were something that I myself saw advertised and was something that I wanted. So i bought a pair and thought that I could advertise this product to a wider audience as the product was originally advertised on the app "Wish" so I thought that not a massive amount of people would see it and I wanted to show that a niche product like this could be appealing to more than it's specific target niche audience.

My original target audience was younger children because I thought the product would be easier to advertise to someone younger as the product is rather childlike in nature. Then I thought that maybe elderly people could use something to help battle the cold weather better while still being functional and useful, however I thought that the product would be too childlike for an elderly person to seriously them. Therefore I decided on my final target audience of parents. This was because the parents would be the people to buy the product for their children so I wanted to appeal to parents most so they would be more inclined to buy the product for their child. This is why I decided on a public service announcement style advert as they would give more attention to it than children. Moreover, a PSA is mostly pathos so parents would be affected emotionally by the advert.

My inspirations for the style of the advert that I wanted to animate in and the tone I was trying to emulate were animated music videos from the band Yorushika and the artist Harumaki Gohan respectively. Both of these animations tell very heartfelt stories that are slightly ambiguous in their conclusions while having very original styles and aesthetics This is what I wanted to do in my animation, tell a serious story that the audience can sort of guess what happens at the end or it's left up in the air what actually happens at the end of the animation.

A problem I faced when deciding to do this was how I was going to leave the story of the animation ambiguous while successfully animating the product. Moreover these animations are very distinct in their art styles and they are both great in their own right however I feel as if Yorushika's animations suit me better and inspire me more than Harumaki Gohan's. This is because the former has more simple animations and are drawn with simpler shapes and have less pure animation overall but still have lots of personality which is the route that I am currently progressing down while developing my own style of animation.

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