I really enjoyed coming across this stop motion animation. It has inspired me to think closely about the sounds produced with the actions in my stop motion animation as well as the music. It is evident that Melissa (@BricksontheLoose) uses ambient audio sounds to evoke strong emotions through vivid imagery in her stop motion animation. You can tell that the Melissa took in a count every sound that would be produced by the actions of her lego figures. My favorite part in Melissa’s stop motion animation was when her lego man ate the green apple on the beach (28 Seconds). The crunching apple sound effect worked perfectly with her action and also was timed right when the apple touched the lego mans lips. I also thought It was helpful that the artist provided information where she uploaded her music and sound effects from. You can check out findsounds.com for sound effects similar to Melissa’s.

For my second inspirational effective use of audio, I wanted to find a good example of a stop motion animation with ambient audio (Audio that gives a sense of place). During my readings this Module I was particularly interested in ambient audio. It seemed to be a great way to give your animation a more realistic appearance. I came across a lot of lego stop motion animations using this effect, however wanted to find something different. That is when I came across “Blutacks”. Yes, Andrew Minor’s stop motion animation is almost entirely made out of Blutack. He shot his stop motion animation with a Panasonic Lumix GF-1 using a tripod and edited it in Corel VideoStudio. Andrew has a nice title screen to introduce you to his animation. He also uses a number of sounds of musics that give you a sense of place.

This After Effects tutorial by Evan Abrams is very insightful. In his tutorial he shows and explains how you can transform dots into lines, letters or really any other shape. He starts with dots and then transforms them into lines. From there he then makes his lines into letters. (Actually, Spoilers, it just looks like that.) What I found interesting is that his pre-production is completed in illustrator. This is where he maps out his project before executing in After Effects. The process he explained in Illustrator seemed to very simple, for any illustrator level to pick up. If you are interested Evan allows his fans to download his After Effect files here.

I came across my this text animation on YouTube, after typing in “Triangle animation intro title”. My favorite part about this text animation is the use of shapes transforming into introduction letters. The beginning of the text animation shows three-dimensional triangles fly into the screen. Once they start to fall to they begin to become 2d (flat/non-three dimensional). Once all triangles have all fallen they create a logo called “Alpine Rafting”. found it was interesting that Zooba Network created this text animation in Animation AEX7. Animation AEX7 was a program I am not familiar with or have heard about. To check out more of Zooba Network’s work you can go here. Zooba’s team creates, Product/Service Promo Videos, Logo Openers, 3D/2D Logo Intro/Outro Animations, Title Animations, Explainer Videos, Whiteboard Animations, Logo Designs, Website Design & Developments, Full Corporate Brand Designing.

Most of the inspiration for this module I found online and Instagram. Instagram was extremely useful since it allowed me to search for specific hashtags. For an example I was able to see the too posts within the hashtag #papermotion. This allowed me to find well executed stop motion animations and also be specific for what I was looking for.

This stop motion animation has A LOT of frames. It in fact has so many frames that it seems to feel more like a video than a stop motion animation. Although, we all know these are fictitious characters made out of craft materials (clay). The storyline is fun which is also why I decided to pick this stop motion animation. The idea that the fish transform into the snowman’s nose is an entertaining and well thought out execution. I did not expect the fish to transform into a carrot for the snowman’s nose. It is evident that the concept of not expecting something to happen is a very intriguing technique.

This is one the first stop motion animations I came across during my research phase and also one of my favorites. It is neat to think that a number of photos were combined to create this animated affect. I also like how the artist used her hand in her stop motion animation. The combination of cut out paper and hand movement makes for a successful composition. She also uses a limited color palette. The colors she does choose to use are fun and bright colors, other than the thunderstorm cloud. It is evident that this animation does a great job capturing a story through colors, shapes, and movement.

During my inspiration phase I focused my attention to stop motion animations using paper and unusual items. I was particular interested creating a storyline with food items, so I went ahead and researched stop motion animations using food. I was surprised to find an assortment of different stop motion animations after googling “Food stop motion animations”. There was a mixture of linear storylines and non-linear storylines using the formats we learned from Liz Blazer’s book. Having the food “realistically” come to life was what I was most interested in accomplishing. Above is what happens when you you Youtube “Food Fight Stop Motion Animation”. I thought it would be funny if the food items acted like people, so I went ahead and searched for “Food Fight Stop Motion Animation”. To my surprise I found exactly what I was looking for. Food throwing food at food. This was a great example of a stop motion animation using food, while applying a creative humor twist to it. I used this as inspiration for my first stop motion animation using a linear storyline.

I love that this stop motion features different animals made out of paper. There is something about it that makes it feel extremely real. The sound effects of the animals during this stop motion is definitely a bonus. I also admire the 3 dimension the artist is able to achieve with her medium, paper. I have seen a mixture of 2d and 3d paper stop motion animations. However, I have definitely gravitated more to the 3d paper stop motion animations.

The idea of using a wide range of materials to create a stop motion animation has peeked my interest this semester. Origami is such a fun arts and craft activity for both kids and adults. To see the paper come to life to form these delicate figures is such a fascinating site. Using paper to create 3-dimensional objects is definitely an effective technique.

I really liked how the storyline in this stop motion animation was relevant. It captures a paper figurine jumping off a winter Olympic slope, which is made out of paper as well. The set is very well put together as well as the photos. I came across a lot of stop motion animations that lacked quality or did not have either a compelling linear or non-linear storyline. The readings on linear and non-linear storyline’s definitely helped me create something one of a kind and also interesting. I would consider this stop motion animation as a successful example of a linear stop motion animation storyline.

Liz Blazer’s opening paragraph for Chapter 2 was both inspiring and home-hitting. She explained that anything is possible and anything goes in the world of storytelling. She expresses, “Storytelling breaks the rules of gravity, tosses aside the space-time continuum, invents impossible worlds, and takes your audience on a journey simply with shapes, sounds, and colors.” I like that she gives multiple perspectives and touches on some of our five senses, sense of sound, sense of sight, sense of touch, sense of taste and sense of smell. Eliza also briefly touched on “history” in her opening paragraph. History is such an interesting variable in storytelling. You can tell a story from the past or the future no matter what date of time it is. There certainly is a lot to love about storytelling as Liz Blazer mentions, your imagination is the limit.

After the first paragraph of Eliza’s storytelling chapter she started to get into the subject matter deeper. She introduced two story telling-models that I was unfamiliar with, Standard Storytelling Model  and the Non-narrative Story Telling Model. She emphasized, “The great challenge is more about disciplining yourself to reel it in and be intentional about your storytelling choices.” Meaning, it was more about how much discipline you exercised in limiting your choices than creating a mind-bending world. I was determined to use this piece of advice through the process she walked us through next on the Standard Storytelling Model  and Non-narrative Story Telling Model.

Liz Blazer Three-Act-Structure was a lot of fun to read about. Learning about the Three-Act Structure within the Standard Storytelling Structure was both informative and inspiring. I noted the steps that Liz provided below for keeps and areference.

Three Act-Structure:

Step 1 – On a stack of (15-30) cue cards, go ahead and write down/sketch out all of the moments that move your story along until the conclusion. (Each card should represent an active step or beat in the storyline and can be both physical and/ or emotional.)

Step 2 – Place those on the wall in chronological order in three separate rows. These three rows represent a traditional three-act storytelling structure,

Step 3 – (Three-Act Story Structure) – 1. A character has a problem, 2. The character works towards a solution, 3. The character solves the problem, usually in a surprising way.

Step 4 – Next, create a fourth row of “additional beats.” You’ll put cards here that either don’t fit into your structure or that you simply don’t yet know what to do with (and which you may never use).

Liz Blazer’s Chapter 3 is all about building your visual script. Your visual script also known as storyboarding is used to solidify your story before animating. Liz Blazer mentions that Walt Disney uses storyboarding to save more than a few bucks and it is suited for Mr. Disney’s natural showmanship. I enjoyed reading how Walt Disney used storyboarding during the beginning of Chapter 3. I thought it was nice reading that the Disney sketches excited people from the team of artists to potential investors. I can see how this can be an essential process. Liz Blazer says, “ Storyboarding is your opportunity to work out the visual elements that best suit your story.” Storyboarding will save time, money and get will get your team excited.

Thumb-nailing – Are the first rough sketches of your storyboards. They help you work out the sequencing of your “shots” and provide an opportunity to establish important aspects of staging, framing, scale, and transitions.

Storyboard Recap

1. Vary Your Shots Responsibly: Utilize different-sized shots to enhance narrative logic and drama.

2. Framing & The Rule of Thirds: Keep shots interesting by placing subject off-center.

3. Staging: Block elements to create visual and conceptual hierarchy.

4. Spatial Continuity: Make sure frames are consistent with the physical world you’ve created.

5. Temporal Continuity: Make sure frames are consistent with the story you’ve been telling.

The tutorials Professor Golden supplied for Module 2 helped me understand the steps necessary to create a strong and successfully composed cinemagraph. A cinemagraph is a technique of blending the effects of images and videos together. It was introduced by Jamie Beck a New York fashion photographer, in collaboration with motion graphics designer Kevin Burg. I started my cinemagraph journey by analyzing the cinemagraphs at cinemagraph.com.  Most of the cinemagraphs at cinemagraph.com used liquids such as wine pouring out of a bottle, light such as a fireplace or wind to create a cinemagraph. I found some pretty cool ones under the Travel category that used the foreground, background, Professor Golden talked about in our Module’s overview video. I was also pleased to find an assortment of inspiring cinemagraphs on fixel.com, gallereplay.com and dribbble.com. It was not until I did some digging for the artists behind the cinemagraphs at cinemagraph.com that I realized these beautiful cinemagraphs belonged to the inventors of the medium Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck.

Prior to watching the videos for our Module I had a lot of ideas for our “Create” phase. Such as, playing fetch with my dog outside, running on a treadmill.  Don’t get me wrong these ideas can be accomplished to make a cinemagraph. However, after understanding the requirements of a cinemagraph my perspective has changed. One of the biggest things I learned was that a cinemagraph is only a few seconds long and MUST loop. If those two requirements are not met your cinemagraph may appear to be a long video clip, rather than a cinemagraph. Given the fact that a short clip that loops is a necessary component for a cinemagraph, I decided to think smaller in secs rather than large. What can I record that loops repeatedly and would be original?

By Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck. (Inventors of the cinemagraph medium)

This cinemagraph does a great job capturing the foreground, middle ground, and background, Professor Golden talked about in our module video. The imagery/video quality is also very well done. You can tell that the cinemagraph artist thought a lot about the composition before executing the shot. The cookie and hand does not show any signs of being masked or cropped to blend the effects of the imagery and video together. I think that this is a very good example of a successful cinemagraph. Knowing more about the process of a cinemagraph has made me appreciate these simple yet well designed cinemagraphs. This cinemagraph was created by Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck. (Inventors of the cinemagraph medium)

I came across Vega Bund’s (@Vega.bund) levitating pancake cinemagraph on YouTube. It was unlike any cinemagraph I came across during my inspirational cinemagraph hunt. The combination of fantasy and cinemagraph worthy syrup made for an excellent composition. It was really neat to see how Vega completed his cinemagraph from beginning to end. Inorder for him to capture his pancakes and syrup floating above the plate, he manipulate his images/video in Photoshop using the masking tool. With the masking tool he was able to remove the clips, books, bowl and box he used to prop the pancakes in the air. As you can see from watching his video there were no clear strings or clear clips holding the pancakes. Everything he used to hold up the pancakes was edited out of the shot quite easily using the masking technique. After watching Vega Bund’s tutorial I decided to give the levitating food cinema graph a try for myself. Scroll down below to check it out. You can watch Vega Bund’s tutorial above to learn how you can levitate syrup and pancakes too.

Drones, drones, drones. Something that was on my mind a lot during my research phase. Can a drone capture video and photos to make a cinemagraph’s? Surprisingly they can. Thanks to ever-improving control technology it is possible to fly your drone extremely stable in the air. Drones  are build with gyroscopes in them that you can program to stabilize the drone. This video by We Talk UVA shows how he used his drone to capture video and still shots for his cinemagraph. I found the information about drones and real life cinemagrph examples very inspiring. My dad owns the DJI Mavric Pro. He was nice enough to allow me to borrow it for this project. 🙂

On Quora.com I came across a thread discussing the most popular cinemagraphs on the web. There were a variety of cinemagraphs on this list that redirected you to Reddit to see the enlarged cinemagraph and viewers comments. Some of the cinemagraphs on this list I saw earlier on fixel.com, but there were a few I was unfamiliar with. In particular the “Empty and Waiting” cinemagraph caught my eye. The quality of the cinemagraph wasn’t the best, but the subject matter and loop was very well executed. Something like a spinning cup (on its side) and a spinning coin (in the background) is a very challenging composure to loop. Since a cinemagraph is usually only a few seconds long and must loop this animation shows that you can create a seamless loop while controlling a physical objects motion. It is apparent that this cinemagraph had to be very well timed and shot in order to make this into a successful cinemagraph. You can check out “Empty and Waiting” by @Lenn_eavy here.

Arron Nace from PHLearn is an excellent teacher. I have watched his YouTube tutorials when I started my education as a graphic designer in college. I stayed pretty up to date with his latest posts over the years, however have not seen any of his tutorials on cinemagraphs. I was thrilled to come across this inspiring video of his on cinemagraphs. The video was very basic, but it outlined all of the important steps from taking footage to exporting your cinemagraph properly in Photoshop. I found that this tutorial was a great piece of inspiration to fall back on if I was experiencing any trouble with my cinemagraph process.

Liz Blazer’s Introduction focused heavily on the use of storytelling for both animation and motion graphics. Animation is a limitless medium for storytelling and is the key to a successful animation. Liz Blazer’s book will allow us to learn how to create memorable stories using animation and motion graphics following 10 simple guidelines (Concept development, Pre-production, Story-boarding, and Design). It was comforting to read that skilled storytellers specialized in animation are in high demand and their opportunities are expanding. I was excited to read in Liz Blazer’s Introduction that each chapter would end with a short assignment. This will not only increase our animation portfolios, but allow us to physically work with the theory that we learned during the each chapter. It is so important that we reinforce what we read, especially when it comes to animation and motion graphics.

Liz Blazer’s Introduction also discussed the two forms of animation. Liz Blazer made it very easy to understand the difference between animation and motion graphics. She expresses they are two forms of animation that often are treated as if they come from completely different worlds. Animation (for the most part) has been placed into the film making discipline and Motion Graphics has been part of the Graphic Design discipline.

The first chapter of “Animated Storytelling” was both exciting and informative. The chapter was filled with a lot of great tips, explanations and useful examples. Animated storytelling is all about planning. Every animated story should answer three essential questions (What is it?, What does it look like?, and What is it made of?) prior to animating. Liz Blazer explains these three essential questions are answered in Concept Development, Previsualization, and Asset Building.

Concept development brings written/verbal clarity to exactly what you are animating and ultimately shapes your story line. Creating a creative brief is an extremely important task for you to complete during this phase. You will answer questions such as, Who is it for, how long it must be, what is the objective, when is it due etc.  This is not only extremely helpful to keep you on track, but also useful for your clients to understand the requirements. Crafting your elevator pitch, tagline, plot and theme are also necessary steps to construct a compelling story.

Previsualization is the next phase in your quest to answer your three big questions. During this phase you will focus on visual development and concept art. Liz Blazer, says “this stage helps define the look and feel of your production of your production before it begins”. All great work derives from inspiration. So, it is important to not only get your inspiration from giphy search but also watch a lot of motion graphics, animated shorts and commercials. Experimenting with design direction to tell your story from your concept development stage is also an essential part of previsulaization.

Asset building is the last phase Liz Blazer touched upon in Chapter 1. This is where all of your pieces come together to form your animation. Liz Blazer references them as, “all the stuff you’ll need to go in there to make the magic happen”. Creating an organized system with well marked files will be an important step during her last phase.

Here’s Liz Blazer’s quick reference when it comes to Pre-production

Pre-production Recap

• Write a creative brief.
• Identify your big idea and create a storyline.
• Develop an elevator pitch and tagline.
• Determine your project’s look and feel through influence and experimenting with design direction.
• Make changes to your story based on design decisions.
• Begin building and organizing your assets.

Most of my inspiration during my motion design hunt (aka research to inform segment) was discovered through multiple websites and applications. I found most of my inspiration for this segment on, Dribbble, Instagram and Giphy. I decided to collect inspiration for each of the categories we learned about in Module 1 (Frame by Frame Animation, Stop Motion Animation, Tweening, Onion Skinning with Software, & Animated Gifs). Searching for inspiring animations as well as discovering popular motion artists in this field really opened my eyes. It was great to see first hand what could be accomplished with a range of mediums and software. It was refreshing to further explore one of my favorite motion design artists Jonathan Dahl motion designs during this research to inform segment. Jonathan Dahl has been a big motion design fan of mine for years now.

I love animals, so I was immediately attracted to this fish onion skinning sketch. As you can tell the artist did a excellent job on the anatomy of the fish. It’s realistic anatomy and smooth transition makes this fish come to life right off the paper.

This is one the first stop motion animations I came across during my research phase and also one of my favorites. It is neat to think that a number of photos were combined to create this animated affect. I also like how the artist used her hand in her stop motion animation. The combination of cut out paper and hand movement makes for a successful composition.

The idea of using a wide range of materials to create a stop motion animation has peeked my interest this semester. Origami is such a fun arts and craft activity for both kids and adults. To see the paper come to life to form these delicate figures is such a fascinating site. This was a unique and also enjoyable stop motion animation I discovered.

This frame by frame animation was both inspirational and educational. It helped me form a better understanding of the difference between “tweening” and “frame by frame” animation. I would highly recommend it if you have a hard time understanding the difference between “tweening” and “frame by frame” animation. This little guy is inspirational since it has showed me how much time and effort goes into a clean frame by frame animation.

This animated Gif was created by Gal Shir and is called “Cacti”. I like the sense of humor Gal Shir captures in his Cacti gif. You can feel the emotions of the cacti as the bubble hits the side of the cacti ever so slightly. It is evident that Gal used a number of frames to compose his smooth animation. Most of the animated Gifs I discovered were on Dribbble.com.

“Wave AZZL App”
By: Jonathan Dahl

This is one of my many favorite gifs of Johnathan Dahl. He has such an eye for animation. His smooth transitions and use of storytelling catches your eye in this animation. His gifs always seem to be full of life and embody a good sense of humor just like this one does. I also like how the swimming tube around the purple character transforms into the blue character.

“Morphing”
By: Frida Ek

I thought this .gif by Frida Ek was very creative. The idea of morphing objects is such a neat concept. After I found this animation I brought it into Photoshop to see Frida Ek’s individual frames. This was a great way to understand the animated transformation. I feel like this animation is a great representation of what a well-planned out animation looks like. You can take a look at Frida Ek’s work here. Who knew the egg would turn into a glass of wine?