Magic Lantern

Magic Lantern is a image projector that was believed to be created by Christian Huygens, Giovanni Fontana and Athanasius Kircher. It was one of the oldest devices that could show still and moving images in the past as entertainment and religious tool and the Magic Lantern was wide used in different classes which satisfied the obsession of new technology and supernatural and it is a huge industry at that time. 

The Magic Lantern only  consists of a few major parts: The body, light source, lantern slides, concave lens and the front lens. The body is there to hold all the parts together onto a projector and the size and shape vary when the amount of information increases.

It is believed to be a small Magic Lantern. It has a camera like body with one front lens.

A triple Magic Lantern that can project more images and effects at the same time

Oil Lamp and candle were the only light source during that time. They were extremely inefficient and reduced the quality of the images since the light was not strong enough to penetrate through the lens onto the wall in order to show a bright image. What is more, it could be dangerous to light up fire inside an apparatus.

The stained glass or the lantern slide is a thin drawn and coloured glass that is put between the light sources and the lens. Multiple lenses could work together so as to produce moving images and other illusions by switching the lenses consistently. Since the new technology had been introduced, people were managed to print photographic images onto glass which was the beginning of mass production of magic lantern.

Here is a video talking about the contribution and the operation of Magic Lantern. After watching, I am more enthusiastic and grateful about the ancient projector devices. Compare to the modern apparatus,  the magic lantern has an advantage of cooperating more closely between the operator and the audience. It takes a huge amount of time in preparing the glass images and the devices which receive more appreciation then the 'instant production' we have today.

Bubble Bee by Walt Disney 1948 and A Baffling Balloon Behaviour

Bubble Bee by Walt Disney 1948

This Disney short cartoon gave me an idea how light weight object (in this case bubble gum) will act. The bubbles created by the gum is light and have similar properties as balloons. In the cartoon, the used the reflection of light and the wobble movement are important in creating the light weight and floaty-ness of the bubble. Also, the direction of the bubbles are mainly depended on the direction of wind and the surroundings. 

A Baffling Balloon Behavior - Smarter Every Day 113

I watched this on youtube to try to understand the science of helium but it is not clear for me. Apparently helium is lighter than oxygen so that it goes to the opposite direction of oxygen when accelerating. I am so confused and I wonder if this is essential for the animation. I might not animate this property of helium because I am not familiar with it therefore probably should focus on starting the animation for now. Might come back later for this thought.

The Classical Element Development: Character design and storyboard

Character design is the next development I did for my animation. The feedback I received from the previous crit encourages me to investigate various characteristics on the balloon to a certain extent. I tested out different style of eyes and face which provide more ideas instead of restricting myself from the initial concept art. 

I have chosen the balloon with eyes with the white part (If that make sense). I chose it because it is not a style I have tried before and the emotions of the character travel more directly to the audience due to the diverse use of those simple shapes and the eyebrows. However, the consistency of the drawings could not be easily maintained and therefore I need to draw slowly in order to make sure the shapes are similar. 

Character design of the kid. 

I have not decided on the gender yet but this character is probably a little boy who is not talkative. The odd hairstyle and 'mouth-less' state his introvert personality and he wants a good friend in his life just like any of us. In these drawings, he has eyes but not in the storyboard. The comments I got from the class is that they like he without the eyes,(It was just a mistake as I forgot how long his fringe is) and this mistake has confirmed the final look of the boy. I am happy with the result and hopefully the this dialogue-free character will not be too eye catching.

Storyboard. 

Compare with the previous storyboard, this is way shorter and simpler. There is more time to express less which could slowly build in the atmosphere. I did not like to rush the information therefore this is the ideal length of the animation. I have asked Matt and Max about what they feel about the story and they said the story is sweet and expressive. They like the characters and how I made the yellow balloon to stand out by only giving it eyes in the whole story. 

Anamatic

I feel like this is the right timing as each key moment will be shown in an appropriate time, allowing the audience to digest and interpret and hopefully this length of time allows effective story telling.

The Classical Element Development

I have animated a 1 second clip using the chosen art style on photoshop.

After the experiment, I realised I sat the timing wrongly and did not get the result I expected. The one second animation contains too much information which the information within should definitely be reduced. If this speed is maintained, the animation might end up bombarding the audience with a messy content for 20 seconds, no time for digestion. Therefore I am redesigning a storyboard that has less information and mainly focus on the characters and the 12 principles. I major thing I need to focus on is the timing therefore more tests are needed. What is more, the drawing method I used in the experiment was not effective. I struggled to trace the previous drawing because I coloured he frame before moving on to the next frame. This disable me to get precise outline and the content between key frames and therefore it might be useful to sketch the basic outline before colouring. I hope this allows define outcome and maintain the accuracy.

After Effect Induction (2)

We have learnt a few more functions in After Effects and which were NOT BORING!

We had chance to play around with different material provided by Matt(?) and I made a bouncing sunflower.

I found it hard applying bouncing and stretching principle digitally. The image is so rigid and I am totally disguised. 

The rotation effect is difficult to get it right. Have to relocate the anchor point in order to let the balloon ship turns up side down 'logically'.

Easing in and out is probably the best effect it has which is extremely useful when making animation. The shapes move beautifully with the effects and we can change the speed by changing the speed graph. After all, after effect is an useful programme for me to edit videos but I do not think I will animate using it.

The Classical Elements: Development

After the group crit, I rearranged the colours of the balloons according to the feedbacks I received. The first bunch of balloon has a low saturation of colour but I am not fond of the tone which is dull and lifeless. The colour does not introduce a relax and happy atmosphere so I do not like it. The pastel colour at the end is the best colour out of these tests in my opinion. I have received some feedbacks from the class, most of them like the pastel balloons due to the dreamy and colourful properties that would not over-shone the yellow balloon.

As I was not sure about the style of work, I tried out various way to outline the balloon. The top left is my favourite because it is clean and simple whereas the others are not neat and I realised that black outline is horrible... 

Experiment 1:( please click the picture to look at the gifs )

This is my favourite outline and the product is clean and comfortable when watching. This would probably be my style eventually.

Experiment 2:

This wobbly outline is not bad but this could cause confusion when applying onto all balloons. Nevertheless, I like the sketchiness and simplicity.

Experiment 3:

OK, this is horrible. Never use bold black outline.