Responsive: SISTERS Idea generation

So once I studied the brief I began generating ideas. The first thing that hits my mind when I think of the word sisters is a biological bond between two females. Does it have to be biological? Not necessarily, some times girls call each other sisters as an act of friendship, same as the expression "brother from another mother". However the exploration onto the definition of the word sisters was pretty fruitless to me. It did not give me any further ideas. Then I thought about what sisters do. I wouldn't know because I do not have a sister, but I do however have a brother, and sisters are non the less SIBLINGS. This term is more broad and gave me more ideas to work with. Definition of sibling in English:
noun
Each of two or more children or offspring having one or both parents in common; a brother or sister.
When I think of siblings the words that came to my mind were- sibling rivalry, fighting between siblings, parents, growing up with siblings,childhood, special bond, blood thicker than water. The one I went with was fighting between siblings, because this triggered a lot of memories about how I used to fight with my brother when we were kids. So since the theme of the competition determined that the main characters have to be sisters, I thought about when do sisters fight. The first thing that came to my mind was when they borrow each others stuff.

So essentially, sisters are like built in friends. But with the major familiarity usually comes great annoyance. Sisters usually fight so well because they are too much alike, and in psychology it is often times pointed out that the flaws of other people usually annoy you only because subconsciously you recognize those flaw in yourself. I usually get along with people pretty well, but if I dislike a person for no reason I ask myself why, and usually the flaws that annoy me the most are in fact the same flaws I posses. 

So the first idea that came to my mind after researching this, was sisters stealing each others clothing, for example jeans. A sister steals a pair of jeans, dances around in it and accidentally rips it. But the problem I ran into was how would I make it loop? Perhaps she tries to sow the jeans together and puts it back into place and then the other sister without the prior knowledge puts the jeans on. But then how would I loop it back to the other sister again? The object would have to be something in common because with the loop demand comes symmetry in the narrative. So what if they borrowed a thing from each other? That would be hard to illustrate that they are borrowing and not stealing, and stealing would not make sense in family friendly theme. Then I thought what do children/ teenagers hate that they would have in common- long family gatherings, parents lecturing and LONG CAR DRIVES! This idea really stuck with me for some reason, so I just ran with it. Sisters annoying each other on a long car drive, that is what I am going to animate!

Responsive: Loop de Loop brief

SISTERS

“I think women are amazing and women’s friendships are like a sisterhood and we should see more of it in television and film.”
Laurie Holden

Helen Gibbins has founded a new organisation called Women and Animation Australia or WANDAA. WANDAA’s aim is to raise the profile of female animators in Australia and celebrated their achievements. To help celebrate the establishment of this fine organisation, LoopdeLoop and WANDAA have agreed to make our next theme SISTERS!
Having a sister is a relationship that you can born into or have forged over lifetime of friendship. For those of us who have a sister, we know that there are times when they can be our greatest competitor, our closest friend or a sage councillor. With such a wide range of experiences there is plenty of inspiration. So let’s show our respect to all the hard workin’ gals out there and create some awesome animations!
Submissions close at 11:30pm on Sunday the 24th of January in your time zone.
The submission rules are simple;
• it must be made by you,
• it must suit the month’s theme,
• it must be engaging,
• it must be submitted in one of our specified formats,
• it must not contain pornographic material, incite hatred or include defamatory or discriminatory content,
• it has to loop!

Selected loops will be posted within 7 days of submission for everyone to enjoy, comment and rate. The top 100 loops will screen at dates still to be announced in Los Angeles, New York, Tel-Aviv, Leeds, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Check the sidebar of the site for full upcoming screening details.
Visit our submissions page for more details on format and content restrictions.
Sign up to our newsletter to get up to date information on screening times, themes & other LoopDeLoop news.

Responsive: Loop de Loop competition research

“Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s just a cycle.”
Mike Tyson

Who better to define animated loops than Iron Mike, former heavyweight champion of the world. And he’s right, time is just a cycle, a cycle which we challenge you to control, trapping it in a continuous feedback loop for all eternity.

Afraid? You should be…

LoopdeLoop is an animation challenge. Every two months animators from around the world create looping animations based on a given topic and upload them to www.loopdeloop.org. On the last Tuesday of every second month all of the posted loops are compiled and screened to a live audience at Loop in Melbourne, Australia. During the screening a winner is declared, who enters the hall of fame and has their loop featured throughout the following month.
 History-
In the beginning there was The Animation Club’s Secret Handshake event, and life was good. A monthly animation night organised by the wonderful Sarah Phillips and hosted by esteemed entertainer James Hazelden, the Secret Handshake screenings were a guaranteed great night out.
The screenings were fun, and encouraged local animators to create a new short animation to a set theme each month. They gave students and professionals alike an opportunity to have their work projected in front of a live audience and to experiment with new techniques.
Why choose Loop de Loop?
Following in the footsteps of Secret Handshake, LoopdeLoop gives animators an opportunity to network internationally through our blog and to rub shoulders locally with fellow animators at the monthly screening in Melbourne, Australia. Our goal is to connect people working in independent animation and ease the feelings of isolation that can come with the notoriously long hours involved in the creation of their work.
Rather than short films which can quickly balloon into daunting, all encompassing projects, we’ve opted to be a monthly showcase of animated loops. The idea behind this is to make creating work for the project more achievable and fun, much less intimidating than having to plan and execute a full animated narrative.
Looping animations are a great challenge to create, because they force you to refine an idea into a tiny nugget and pack a lot of time and effort into a short sequence of images. When executed well, the resulting loop is an engaging sequence which flows seamlessly and stands up to repeated viewings.
Loops are uploaded to the blog regularly so there’s always new content to view and vote upon. At the end of each month our committee will decide on two finalists based on their quality and popularity on the blog, from which the audience will select the winner on the night of the screening. The winner will then have their loop featured for the following month and both them and the runner up will receive a prize!
Loop de Loop team
In the interests of quality control, once submitted each loop will need to pass an initial judgement by our committee before appearing on the blog. This ensures that all posted loops are engaging, well animated, submitted correctly (in one of the specified formats), and run in a continuous loop.
Please note Loop De Loop is a non profit blog/event, run solely in the interest of good times and great memories. Everyone involved in the project is donating their time and expertise, and any money donated to LoopdeLoop@Loop goes back into the business, paying for server space, our mystical prize collection, and any other expenses.
Our highly qualified team are as follows;

DANIEL ATKINSON.
Freelance illustrator, Lecturer and ex president of Illustrators Australia, Daniel has a keen eye for style and technique, and his knowledge of superheroes is so thorough that it’s a little disturbing.

SIMONE BENNETT.
A graphic designer, currently working at The Blue Vapours Creative Bureau, Simone is a multi skilled design professional with an eye for detail and the ridiculous things that make human beings so damned interesting.
https://vimeo.com/69447860



FELIX COLGRAVE.
Student, award winning animator and criminal mastermind, we reckon that Felix is a force to be reckoned with. His talents are prodigious, his feedback concise, and his beard… voluptuous.

IVAN DIXON.
One half of Rubber House animation studio and all round fancy man of animation, Ivan Dixon is a bandy armed pug loving maniac with a heart of gold! Just don’t say anything bad about Popeye around him…
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-of-the-day/ivan-dixon-93614.html


ANDREW EVANS.
Illustrator, Animator, and wearer of pants that suit him, Drew is a master multi-tasker. As proof of this he will be watching your work and offering you feedback while also eating a slice of toast.

JOANNA LEITCH.
Joanna Leitch is an animator, illustrator, and designer based in Los Angeles. She is development coordinator at Nickelodeon Animation, one-half of our LoopDeLoop LA team and she kind of really likes Star Wars… a lot!



MEGAN JO NAIRN.
Animator, lecturer, illustrator, comic creator and all round extraordinary girl, Megan has worked on many animated productions and is only too happy to share advice and baked treats with fellow creators. Megan now resides in LA and is the other half of our LoopdeLoop LA team!


ADAM PARTON.
An accomplished animator with years of experience in the studio system, Adam is currently working as a supervisor at Square I.

MEL SANDERS.
A multi-skilled business manager with arts training, Mel is a stickler for detail and when ideas become too “creative” and go off the rails, she gets them back on track.

NEIL SANDERS.
An Illustrator, designer, lecturer and animator, Neil is a child trapped in an adult’s body, like some sort of unending Tom Hanks nightmare. He teaches in the Diploma of Illustration at NMIT.

NATHANAEL SCOTT.
Captain of industy, Nath is one of natures greatest miracles, capable of both intricate code and stunning design, and can out dance anyone at a moments notice.

Responsive: What's The Problem?

To what extent  will the briefs allow you to meet your criteria for success within the module? 
I believe the briefs will help me better understand what I want to do in this industry, as this module progresses I want to establish a focus point of what I want to do when I finish this course. Also I have not been much of a team player since now. I believe the module will help me find myself in a team and how to coordinate workflow between other people, not just myself.
To what extent will the briefs benefit you with regards to the benefits of entering competition briefs?
It will help me plan out my time better, as we have to juggle between projects and briefs from the other modules, I feel that this year I began to discover how important it its to schedule your workflow and stick to the schedule. Also it will help me expand my experience and knowledge of the industry.
Any problems that you can foresee with the briefs in relation to the issue discussed in the session.
With the loop de loop competition, I find it the hardest to loop the narrative. As Sara mentioned in one of the lectures, usually a story has to either end on a plot twist or a loop. Plot twists are easier for me, where as in loops you have to consider the concept in whole so it makes sense when it loops, that it is a never ending story. With the Do It In Ten brief it is definitely difficult to come up with a story for ten seconds. I usually have ideas that would be time framed within a few minutes. It is hard to simplify my ideas and produce something captivating within only a few seconds. However, the attention span for my generation is most definitely from 10-20 seconds. I myself don't bother watching a whole video if it is more than 3 minutes long. Unless something interesting happens within the first few seconds, so I can see how the brief would benefit me from that point of view. Just to illustrate my point-

Also the question What's The Problem?  for some reason reminded me of this flowchart-

And then I thought it would be relevant to this blog if I edited it to illustrate whatever I was talking about. But rather ironically I realized my attention span is alarmingly low and I should not be spending my time like this... 

Responsive: Project Proposals

So at this Responsive session we were given some tips on how to disseminate briefs and how to tackle them, also how to make project proposals:

• Set clear aims and objectives. So the objectives would be how am I going to do it and the outputs. The specific aims would be outcomes and the impact upon whom or what and also there are the overall aims which are at the very top of the pyramid. This would consist of intentions and impact.
• Be SMART ( Specific , Measurable , Achievable , Realistic , Time Conscious).  Details- exactly what needs to be done.Achievements can be measured in terms of units, or specific success criteria. The resources, scope and scale are within your capabilities or capacity.The objectives is possible to attain – which is important for your motivation. The period of time, target dates, schedule or timetable is clearly defined.
• Use words from your brief
• Justify the need for your proposal. Show what research you have already done. Who needs it?Why do they need it? What evidence can you provide to support your argument? What circumstances have created this need? Don’t make empty statements

• Describe your audience. Demographics, locations, lifestyle. Which industry?What values do they have?Why will they engage with it?

• Describe your motivations. What are your goals? What are your ambitions? What are your success criteria? What are your values? Political standpoint. Environmental concerns.Social factors.Economic factors.

• Consider the reader. Make your proposal easy to read by: Using a professional template, using the appropriate tone. Not repeating yourself to pad it out, asking two people to check your grammar and spelling before you submit.
• Eliminate vagueness. Some words to avoid:Unique, nice, special, normal, bland, sleek, definitely, awesome, gay, basically, essentially, totally, interesting, utilize, like, get, got, I, chance, actually, really, truly, amazing, everyone, never, always, things, life, a lot, good, bad, cool, whatever, went, boring, trendy, stylish, maybe, individual.

• Visualize the ending  
• Assume nothing 

Except......

that the reader of your proposal knows nothing about you, your skills or the context of your project. Explain everything.

Responsive: Made You Look

Made You Look is a documentary about the UK DIY graphic arts scene of the 21st century. Via candid interviews with top British creatives, publishers and agency owners it explores the fact that more people than ever seem to be turning to analogue means of creating things, even though we are living at the height of the digital era.
In today’s digital age, where do you stand on print media? As times change, it’s clear that newspapers, magazines, printed art, etc don’t have the same impact as they used to. However, they still serve a purpose and offer something special. The internet and social media provide ways to connect and share one’s work but doesn’t require one to create something that only exists there.
Since the animation industry these days demands a certain level of understanding in digital media and my comfort zone is withing digital 2D animation, I was definitely taking sides with the digital generation. Animation can be hand drawn, but why go a step forwards and two steps back? The only way animation can be improved and/or innovative is by exploring the digital world.  I don't think digital and hand produced work should be mutually exclusive. This documentary, while nice, seems to be a bit biased towards hand produced work, seeing it as some sort of "pure" art form. Why do we need to have so many books and belongings? Personally I just feel like they tie me down. I like the freedom of the internet, being able to find out and do so much with such a small machine. I can see why people feel that hand made art work is more personal and genuine, because it can not be copied and the hand made element makes it on of a kind.Further more,  just because there are amazing softwares and tools available to creatives, that does not mean using a traditional analog techniques should be ignored. But working on a digital platform is so much easier for me and more efficient, and with a job like animation usually you cannot take your time as there is certain deadlines needed to be met. Overall, I feel like the movie was beneficial, as it brought to my attention how rewarding it can be to not rely on the digital tools and software available to artists. But we live in a digital age and there is a reason why so many artists turn to digital media- because it is innovative and offers more benefits and efficiency than any traditional technique could  ever offer. Afterall,

Applied Animation: Character Design

So once we got the interviews down and ready for working with, we sat down and had a brainstorm session about what these characters should be. We listened to the footage and came up with a few ideas. One of  them was to make the interviewees animals, inspired by the Creature Comforts animation. However we dismissed that idea pretty quickly as it was not original enough. We also had a suggestion to make the character as aliens or various kitchen items. We considered that for a moment but dismissed the alien idea as it did not have ant relative connection to the theme of the animation, and the kitchen item idea did not really seem appealing to us. Eventually Ollie and I agreed on making the characters human. Since one of the interviewees talked really passionately about meat, Ollie had an idea to gradually  turn him into a werewolf  as he was giving the interview. I liked the idea but then we figured it might be to ambitious. So we decided to make him a surgeon, as he would be giving the interview there would be a surgery taking place in the background. As we also had an interview with a child we quickly came up with the idea or an immature professor, or a kid dressed as a professor to be more exact. We like this idea because we can play around with it and make it funny. As for my parents, we decided to make them astronauts, because the audio quality was a bit poor, we figure the astronaut outfits would help justify the quality, also Ollie felt the Easter European culture is associated with space so we both felt it would be very relevant. As for Ollies grandfather, we struggled with coming the character the most. We had an idea to make him a war veteran gradually turning into a child as he speaks about sweets. But then we figured that it does not necessarily have to be funny. Ollies grandfather story is heart warming and nice so we felt like it did not need to be humorously portrayed, rather simply and genuinely. That is when we came up with the idea to make him a fisherman. I felt it really worked, an old fisherman sitting on the docks, relaxed talking about his younger days. Ollie however did not seem too keen at first but I think has changed his mind since.
After we decided on the characters I went on to make some sketches-

After sending these to Ollie, he pointed out a few small amendments that should made, like making the surgeon a bit bloody, or putting Lithuanian flags on the astronauts. Now its time to finalize the characters and start testing as well finishing up the animatic.

Applied Animation: Interviewing people

So when we were briefed we were told that it is good practice to have consent forms signed when we take interviews especially if it is children under the age of 18. We were also advised to stay as organised as possible- make a schedule, divide the work, make a script and stick to it, also we were shown how professional studio budgets look like which was very useful to understand.
Ollie did a great job of drafting the consent form:

And then we made a work schedule we would have t stick to, and outlined the most important dates:

So afterwards Ollie and I talked about who we want to interview and how we would do it. We agreed we would interview our families and since mine is Lithuanian it would demonstrate more of a variety of people interviewed. We also managed to agree the questions we would ask during the interview, which were:
What is your traditional family dinner?
What does the traditional family dinner mean to you?
Is it important?

The tutors had an idea to start off with easier questions just so the person we were interviewing could have a chance to warm up. So went back and added some questions:

What is your favorite food?

Why is it your favorite food?

What would be your favorite food to eat with family?

What is your idea of the the traditional family dinner?

Can you tell me some nostalgic stories about food with family?

What is your perfect dinner? (Covering food, setting, and people)

We went to the AV suite, took out a dictaphone and learned how to use it. First of all Ollie interviewed his dad, I was really excited about it as the interview was very lighthearted and nice so I felt like we are getting somewhere. Then we went on going home and interviewing our families. After a week or so we came together to see what we had and we realized we were behind schedule. After cutting up the interviews we had to be rootless with what we kept and what we threw away. Ollie  had a lot of good material which made it hard to choose from, so we felt like if we had any time left with this project we could make it longer and put in what we left out.
Afterwards we decided on the pre production work were going to do- I am in charge of character design and Ollie- background design. And as for animating, I would be in charge of the key framing and Ollie would do the in-inbetweens. Since we were happy with the interviews we decided we were ready to move on with  creating characters to play out the interviews.

Family

So for our Applied Animation module we were briefed to pick one topic (FAMILY, ENVIRONMENT, SPORTS, MENTAL HEALTH) and make a 1-2 minute documentary about it. And then we got grouped up. I was grouped with Ollie and feel very excited about it because I feel he can bring a lot of creative vision to the table. After brainstorming about various ideas for the family topic we made an idea map and how we would execute it. Ollie really wanted to stick with the idea of interviewing war veterans and doing a documentary about war stories, however I was conserened we would struggle to find people to interview about their memories. I had an idea to research euthanasia because it is a very sensitive topic and I believe it could be interesting to investigate, and ultimatley it is a family decision. But Ollie proposed to build on the interviews we take, so which ever idea we run with, the interviews are going to shape the outcome of the animation. Eventually, we settled with the idea of food culture in families and what is the traditional family dinner. We thought, the topic is very relevant because  the food culture in families seems to be slipping nowadays due to a fast passed lifestyle young families seem to engage with. The target audience would be our peers, people in the age 18-26 because it is the next generation of families. We want to interview people of all ages, the bigger veriaty of age and background difference the better.
Really excited to get this ball rolling!!