FMP evaluation

for my final major project I chose to create a Silhouette stop motion animation. The story was my person adaptation of an Irish legend. The legend is about an Irish hero called Oisin and a woman called Niamh from Tir na Nog (the otherworld).

I first found the story of ‘Oisin and Niamh’ from a Myths and Legends book I own. To adapt the story i researched the many existing adaptations of the story I found online. I also visited my family in Ireland in March and asked a lot about the legend and others related to the land.

I named my animation ‘Embarr’ after Niamh’s horse in the tale. The name means “imagination” and personally i think Embarr taking Oisin across the ocean to Tir na Nog is a metaphor for him falling alseep, going to the dream world.

To create the animation i used an A3 lightbox, black card cut outs for the characters and background and baking paper. The baking paper was used to blur the background cut outs of the camera so it was easier to distinguish the foreground from the background.

 

The characters were made to work as flat puppets. Each limb was cut individually to be held together by paper fasteners which worked as joints, allowing the puppet to move. the only issue using paper fasteners was occasionally you could see them behind the puppet in the animation.

To make the animation more interesting i added some digitally drawn close ups of Oisin’s hands. One of these shots is particularly important to the story as it shows Oisin ageing quickly, gaining wrinkles on his hands.

If I could develop my animation I would make the narrative clearer through the visuals rather than using text to explain the story the viewer. I would do this by adding more interesting shots, using different angles and close ups. I would also add more detail into the motion of the characters, trying to make them move more like humans. Finally i would improve the puppet designs. I would use a larger frame so I can make my characters larger and add more detail to them (this includes hands).

 

 

 

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FMP Story research

For my FMP I have decided to work on a silhouette stop-motion graphic on an adaptation of an Irish legend. The legend is ‘Oisin and Niamh’, which tells of a renowned hero and the greatest poet in Ireland called Oisin that falls in love with a fairy princess known as Niamh. Niamh takes Oisin to ‘Tir na Nog’ also known as the ‘Otherworld’ on a magical white horse. They hoped to spend eternity together. Oisin eventually gets home sick and wants to return to Ireland but when he returns to Ireland he ages the 300 years he spent in Tir na Nog and eventually dies.

 

Niamh :

In Irish mythology, Niamh is the daughter of Manannán mac Lir. She is one of the Queens of Tir na nÓg, and might also be the daughter of Fand.

Niamh crossed the Western Sea on a magical horse, Embarr, and asked Fionn mac Cumhaill if his son Oisín would come with her to Tír na nÓg (the Land of Youth). Oisín agreed and went with her, promising his father he would return to visit soon.

Oisín was a member of the Fianna and, though he fell in love with Niamh during their time together in Tír na nÓg, he became homesick after what he thought was three years. Niamh let him borrow Embarr, who could run above ground, and made him promise not to get off the horse or touch Irish soil.

The three years he spent in Tír na nÓg turned out to be 300 Irish years. When Oisín returned to Ireland, he asked where he could find Fionn mac Cumhail and the Fianna, only to find that they had been dead for hundreds of years and were now only remembered as legends. Whilst travelling through Ireland, Oisín was asked by some men to help them move a standing stone. He reached down to help them, but fell off his horse. Upon touching the ground he instantly became an old man. He is then said to have dictated his story to Saint Patrick, who cared for and nursed him until he died. Meanwhile, Niamh had given birth to his daughter, Plor na mBan. Niamh returned to Ireland to search for him, but he had died

 

The wanderings of Oisin – William Butler Yeats

The fairy princess Niamh fell in love with Oisin’s poetry and begged him to join her in the immortal islands. For a hundred years he lived as one of the Sidhe, hunting, dancing, and feasting. At the end of this time he found a spear washed up on the shore and grew sad, remembering his times with the Fenians. Niamh took him away to another island, where the ancient and abandoned castle of the sea-god Manannan stood. Here they found another woman held captive by a demon, whom Oisin battled again and again for a hundred years, until it was finally defeated.

They then went to an island where ancient giants who had grown tired of the world long ago were sleeping until its end, and Niamh and Oisin slept and dreamt with them for a hundred years. Oisin then desired to return to Ireland to see his comrades. Niamh lent him her horse warning him that he must not touch the ground, or he would never return. Back in Ireland, Oisin, still a young man, found his warrior companions dead, and the pagan faith of Ireland displaced by Patrick’s Christianity. He then saw two men struggling to carry a “sack full of sand”; he bent down to lift it with one hand and hurl it away for them, but his saddle girth broke and he fell to the ground, becoming three hundred years old instantaneously.

 

Poem by Oisin:

• Book I:

You who are bent, and bald, and blind,
With a heavy heart and a wandering mind,
Have known three centuries, poets sing,
Of dalliance with a demon thing.

• Book II:

Now, man of the croziers, shadows called our names
And then away, away, like whirling flames;
And now fled by, mist-covered, without sound,
The youth and lady and the deer and hound

• Book III:

Fled foam underneath us, and round us, a wandering and milky smoke,
High as the saddle-girth, covering away from our glances the tide;
And those that fled, and that followed, from the foam-pale distance broke;
The immortal desire of Immortals we saw in their faces, and sighed.

FMP Storyboard

Embarr

I want to stick mostly to the story told by William Butler Yeats, deviating from the story very slightly or if at all necessary for the limitations i might have doing stop-motion.

Characters :

Oisin – atleast 3 cut outs

Niamh – atleast 3 cut outs

Embarr – 3 cut outs

Saint Patrick – 1 cut out

scene 1

Begin with Embarr (Niamh’s white horse) breathing intensely and the ocean waves harshly crashing. then a distant view of Oisin and Niamh riding across the Ocean to Tir na Nog (the land of youth). The rain pour heavily down upon Oisin and Niamh.

This scene gives the viewer a understanding of setting to the story, showing it to be very fictional. It also would intensify the story making it seem a lot more dramatic and poetic 

estimate 10-15 seconds

scene 2

A first person view showing their journey through the clouds before reaching Tir Na Nog. at this point the rain has stopped pouring and the sun shines from behind the Island. they fly to and land onto the Island.

This scene is also very much establishing to the story. mostly giving us a landscape view of Tir Na Nog. 

estimate 10-20 seconds

scene 3

Oisin plays his harp for the fairies of Tir Na Nog. we see a close up of the harp before Oisin the stands up and bows to an applauding audience. Niamh then kisses Oisin.

fades to black

Scene represents the time passed in Tir Na Nog 

estimate 20-25 seconds

scene 4

Oisin is hunting with the Sidhe when he finds a spear washed up on the beach. this makes him remember the Fenians in Ireland. He grows sad.

scene 5

Oisin gets tired of the world and sleeps for hundreds of years, when he wakes he decides he wants to return to Ireland to see his comrades

scene 6

Niamh begs Oisin to stay with her but he is set on returning to Ireland. She gives Oisin her white horse Embarr and warns Oisin not to touch the ground.

scene 7

Oisin returns to Ireland. He see’s two men struggling to carry a sack of sand. he bends down from the horse to try help but falls of his horse. This lead to him instantly ageing 300 years and unable to return to Tir na Nog.

scene 8

Old Oisin tells saint patrick of his tale before eventually dying. Niamh searches for Oisin but it is too late.

Evaluation

In this assignment it was required that I created a Web portfolio that was unique to myself and had a clear theme throughout the entire site. I decided to use a tidy and sleek “Bootstrap” looking design as this style spoke to me the most; using images that I felt best fit to my personality and neutral mood.

My colour palette is mostly a mix of white and shades of grey which makes it very easy to look at for the user and stops images from clashing with the background colour. The expenses of using white is that the website can look rather dull as it lacks the character of colour. White is also a very easy colour to work with though it may look quite default.

The functionality of my site is very complex. using a large amount of .CSS and JavaScript in it’s composition. This allowed for such functions as the Heading and background to transition seamlessly into the the following section of the page when scrolling down. The tool bar moves with the user as they scroll down the page, buttons on the tool bar scrolls automatically to that location on the Hub page. The portfolio page shows my work in a slide show.

 

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I created a survey using SurveyMonkey to get feedback from peers about my web design. Though rating my website highly for the design and the navigation my peers found that there is still room for improvement on the website. The major issues being that their is a clipping problem with the heading where it shows up in the education section on the hub page. Some people also thought that the site wasn’t very unique to me as a person and that it needs to be mobile friendly. Positively people thought the website was very clear, sophisticated and has a sleek design.

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My web Portfolio : http://totton.org/k/louie/

 

Wireframes

 

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I tried to use a very Geometric design originally with my wireframes, using hexagons. I found it wasn’t as easy to understand and limited design and functionality therefore i tried to stick with more simple bootstrap looking design.

 

History of Web design

1989 – Beginning

web design was very simple at this stage given there was no real layout involved. computers were a lot simpler so websites would simply display text on a black background.

1990 – HTML

HTML was created. HTML stands for hypertext markup language and is the standard markup language for for creating webpages. HTML describes the structure of a web page semantically and originally included cues for the appearance of the document.

the World wide Web Consortium is established to implement a set of core principles so the web can be accessed by all.

1995 – JavaScript

JavaScript allowed for web designers to add popup windows leading to other information though this wasn’t very effective. Javascript is a programming language and today is one of the 3 core programs for web design along side CSS and HTML.

1996 – Flash

The Software Flash was developed allowing users to create layouts, shapes, animations and allow the user to interact with the website but required a lot of processing power. therefore Flash was later abandoned for webdesign.

1998 – CSS

Cascading Style Sheets were created to separate the content from the layout and the presentation of the website. Content was still created in HTML. CSS was easier to use to create composition and presentation than HTML

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser

http://blog.froont.com/brief-history-of-web-design-for-designers/

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/web-design-history

Website reviews

A Dandypunk

This website portfolio is very unique to the creator. It makes it very clear that the portfolio is of somebody who works doing digital arts with their own take on the Lovecraftian theme.

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The handwritten titles and prompts also fit to the theme but are rather difficult to read against the background and having the text almost randomly scattered on the screen makes it annoying to look at. The website uses white boxes making it more readable, digital font which is also decorated with little hand drawn characters making the site quite interesting. The artist also links to their own work showcasing their skills and talents.

 

Robby Leonardi

Robby Leonardi’s web portfolio is very out of the ordinary and experimental. The website demonstrates the skill that Robby has through the mini game he has created, with graphs clearing showing how confident he feels about his skill. This is very effective as the interactivity keeps visitors interested and intrigued. Everything is available to the visitor through the game and is designed all on this one page. my only issue is you can only access specific information through the game meaning you can’t avoid playing it.

Robby displays his work through the game he has created for the website but their is no other projects or work available to see on the website.

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Sean Halpin

From Sean Halpin’s website we can instantly gather an idea of what he does such as webdesign for pc and mobiles. the site uses a very light white and grey colour pallet which is easy on the visitors eyes but is also very dull.

The design users alot of negative space and solid colours making it look minimalist and draws the visitors attention to the images and information, which tells us brief what Sean does. The website is very easy to navigate and has 3 pages, “about”, “work” and “notes”.

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Steven Mengin

Steven Mengin’s web portfolio greets us with an animation which immediately draws attention and intrigues the visitor. if you scroll down you are brought to an interactive slideshows which are also animated to ripple when scrolled over. you are also given the option to click for information. A minor issue is that other pages are linked on the sides of the webpage in small text which is easy to miss or ignore. the page also doesn’t use a traditional scroll but rather it animates moving one page to another when the visitor clicks an arrow.

the website still manages to be relatively easy to navigate despite alot of animations due to the large amount of negative space.

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History of motion graphics

Motion graphics is defined as any graphic that has motion to it, whether that is a change in position, transformation, scaling or rotation. this means that motion graphic goes back to the early cinema. In film animated characters express themselves directly through story are animation, otherwise it is considered motion graphics.

Saul Bass is a pioneer in feature film title sequences. His work includes title sequences for films such as The Man With The Golden Arm, Vertigo, Anatomy of a Murder, North by Northwest, Psycho, and Advise & Consent.

 

 

 

 

 

Motion Graphic evaluation

My motion graphic was designed for a Peter Saville exhibition at the Tate Modern. I decided to make my motion graphic on Peter Saville as i find his graphic designs very interesting and stylistic. most are very minimalist or retro, with a good use of negative space and primary colours or black and white. I thought that the Tate modern would be the most fitting location for a Peter Saville Graphic exhibition as the museum itself has a minimalist feeling and design inside.

the motion graphic shows some of Peter Saville’s famous record sleeve designs in motion as to how i believe they would move if they came to life. This idea came to me when i saw that a lot of his sleeves had shapes such as a barbershop pole or dashes all facing the same direction. i thought that the dashes could move in opposite directions to one another or the barber shop pole could infinity move downward.

For the 3D element i planned to have to create a wireframe of the Joy Division sleeve. To create this I would have to use Maya to create the mountains. this idea developed into a camera moving across the mountains of the displacement map when I found that i couldn’t create wireframe in the current version of Maya on the mac computers.

i think over all the motion graphic is quite different from the original plan given that i changed the 3D element massively, though i still think that the motion graphic is good and flows well with the background music. If I could adjust this in the future I would create more sleeves and import the displacement map made in Maya to another program to make the wireframe.

In my opinion i think that i could have improved the project with better time management.  I feel that if i organised my time better, completing atleast 2 sleeves in 1 week to give myself more time for the 3D element in Maya and the editing in after effects. This could have allowed me to add more detail as i would be able to focus on 1 part at a time.