Rebecca Townley LB551
Work Book
Our course got invited to do a project for Brighton Illustration Fair. As a group we made an animation reel, each starting with a white dot on a black background. We each made a small animation between 30 seconds to a minute.
BIF
When thinking about animating my work I initially went to use AfterEffects, but once drawn out (left) the first scene and put together it didn’t have the right movement as it was too smooth. From this I then thought about doing it frame by frame. This worked out better and fit with my idea well, because the wiggles repressents the narrative of someone getting stoned and where someones mind goes and things they do.
For this project I initially started at looking at objects or things that we associate with white circles like balls, planets/stars, mugs/cups, pills etc. I did this because I thought it would be the best way to transition from original circle. I then tried to link all these ideas together and figure out a story board, this happened to be someone ge getting stoned, they’re mind going then making a tea and listening to music
It took a while to make the animation but it was worth it in the end. I then I had to add sound, I chose the song “We Free Kings” by Roland Kirk because of thr trumpet in the animation. I also sent my animation to Angela who studied Sound to see if we could do a collaberation. What she made was good (link ( below), however, at the group crit I showed my animationwith both of our sounds and as a group we decided mine worked best with the visuals. https://vimeo.com/309916538
Mine
Adam’s
There was a small group of students that wanted to help with the posters, we each came with ideas and start ups. At the meeting as a group we all saw Adam’s poster and said this was the most visually pleasing and worked with all our individual animations best so let him take on the roll.
https://vimeo.com/297094072
https://vimeo.com/309913959 I went to see the animation at BIF and it was nice seeing our work in a public place. Unfortunately, there were some problems with the reel; not all the dots lined up and there were a few bits that skipped. Some students worked hard to put all the animations together in the final production it was upsetting to see that something had gone upse wrong. Another downfall about it was that the room was a bit out the way and there was no sign showing our work was through there so it was easily missed. Apart from this the poster made by Adam were really well done and it was nice seeing everyone work and being a part of the Brighton art community.
When I first got given the brief I wasn’t sure on where I’d take my work and origanally wanted to do the title sequence, however, I hadn’t read a book that gave me any inspiration. I spoke to Louise and this really helped and we discussed taking the protest project and editing the footage to make it represent a womens march. I reasearched past womens marches/protests and looked for extra footage, there was nothing I could really got my attention. I started thinking of issues that effect me and other women. The main ones I was thinking of in the UK where Tampon Tax or Period Poverty. ar I looked at articles for both then tried to find some protest footage and could only find some for Tampon Tax. This and the fact that Tampon Tax effects every UK women and felt I could make a better animation with this protest is why I chose with Tampon Tax.
Cinecity Once I watched all the footage and chose bits that I could use and had cut the footage, I started making plans of what would happen in each clip and what each banner was going sa To help me with this I to say. looked at images from the womens march in London for inspiration, all these helped but I also had to make some of the quotes up myself.
I chose my colour scheme to be pink, red and white and then coloured the banners in frame by frame (to go with the wobbly feel of the old footage) some had multiple layers to add depth but some I wanted to really stand out so it was just a block colour. After the first clip I coloured which took ages I thought about what could spead up the process, this is when I turned the frame rate down to 12 frames per second instead of 24, this helped a lot. I used two different forms of type because I tried to keep the same type that was previously on the banners. I used a type that was similar to the original banner and then moved it accordingly and then hand written type. At first I didn’t know how to track something so was moving the text to fit with wi each frame but watched a YouTube video and tought myself how to track and this was a much faster way of doing it and sped up the process. To make sure the text didn’t dramatically change size or shape I boiled the hand writen stuff in Photoshop to then layer it over the blank banners and then tracked it. When there were other things that came in the way I had to mask it, (shown in the image to the right.) This gave the animation look more realistic as the text wasn’t just layered over.
Due to the footage being old it the frame didn’t fit the size of the screen for what we were using for Cinecity. I didn’t like the black pannels so decided to make them interesting too by adding little boild tampons which fit. This fit with the message of my work and also added more colour to the animation.
https://vimeo.com/302181303 Ultimately, I am very happy with the work I produced for this project and when showing it to the class it seemed it had a positive effect on imforming people about the issue many of the men in the class did not know about.
It was really lovely watching the premier of all our work at Cinecity and lovely having drinks with our classmates. It was a good test run as some did not have sound so was lucky we noticed before hand (unlike the issues with BIF). Overall it was a good experience and ... to showcast our work in the foryer of the university especially when people were having open days at the time.
Gary Neil
I enjoyed Gary Neils lectures as they were really informative on what to expect after universtiy. I liked that as a group we discussed 4 different artist and how they present their work, having this rang of artists was good as parts of each artist applied to us. The fact that we sat down chatted about thier work was good as and cha conversing and being more hands on with physically passing around the work really made me process and learn different ways to get out there as an artist. I felt the only problem was that he didn’t have any female artist in his lectures and see their techneques of getting work, I know it would be similar but ge it would be nice seeing their artwork getting out there. But I do unsterstand he was using his friends work as references.
Rush Agency and Crush Creative When we went to Agency Rush and Crush Creative it was instresing to see the difference between the agence and the creative team.
I felt like Rush Agency was more interesting as it was nice seeing what an agent can do for you and see the positives of having someone to help get you work. It was a good comparison campared to Gary Neil who spoke mainly about the negatives.
Crush Creative was interesting to see how a team works by bounce ideas around. It was nice to see a group of illustrators working as a team because usually in the industry illustrators are often freelance. The trip was good to see the different options for me after university and for me to think about what sort of illustrator I’d want to be.
HiFest We got involved in Hastings Illustration Festival as our course had a table there and we could sell our things. This was a good way to get involved with other illustrators and promote our work.
I sold prints and stickers.How I made these was by taking my drawings and scanning them in then putting them into illustrator to add colour. I then printed my prints on nice paper and put them in plastic wallets with a sticker on that I designed with my art instagram tag on. I did the same with the stickers but printed them on sticker paper and cut them out and had paper backing on them in the plastic wallets. I think they looked quite professional and i was very proud of how cute they looked.
I went to HiFest with my mum, it was really good seeing everyones work and interesting seeing everyine react to my work there too. Everyone that worked the table was really lovely and they set up everyones work so nicely as well.
At the end of the weekend we got a lot of lovely feedback fromthe third years that help set up the table. I felt very proud to take part and it was lovely hearing everyones lovely words.
Screen Printing
Before we even started the screen printing workshop we first looked at the BA Illustration and Graphics Design work to see how to screenprint with paper cut outs as this could be transfered to our studio too.
When I went to the screen printing induction it was split into two days. On the first day we went through all the health and safety and then got demonstrated on how to put emulsion on correctly to both sides of the mesh screen. While this was drying we then sc printed or drew our designs onto asotate paper (each colour onto a different layer.) The emulsion is activiated to UV light so when we put our images down and the screen on top of the lightbox, the image protects the UV light from going through so the emolution stays soft. Where the image is not the emultion is activated and hardens. Using a jet wash we wash off the soft emultion and this ha is where the paint will go through.
On the second day of the induction we learnt how to hook up the screens onto the printing tables. Before printing you have to check to see if theres enough spring from the mesh to the table and ajust accordingly. We did this so the paper doesnt stick to the screen and that theres not too much pressure onto the mesh because theres a risk of tearing a hole. You choose a squeegy that is about 2 inches wider than your image you want to print to allow room and not miss any parts, then you hook up the squeegy you have to make sure it gives the right pressure because otherwise it will push too much paint through and it will bleed or it wont be thick enough. Once everthing is level and hooked up you have to line up your paper to the screen and leave tags so you put it in the same place every time, otherwise the all layers would not line up. After you mix your colours (one pare acrylic to one part ink mixer, which makes the paint slightly thinner so it doesnt dry in the screen so quickly), you put a generous amount of ink to the screen and then flood the screen and firmly print onto the paper. You repeat this for every print, then move the screen and realign the paper to then print the next wi a different colour, repeat until all the layers are layer with done.
Two Colours
Four Colours Three Colours
Business Idea? At Christmas time I spoke to my uncle Simon who owns a Graphic Design company Robinson Studios which he started with him screen printing, although he hasn’t had them running for a while. After my recent workshop I spoke to him about starting them up again. I spoke about Family Store and Tidy Prints and how they go se about selling other artists work and rent out the screen rooms. As Robinson Studios is based in Folkestone I said we could have an online store to get it started. The way we wanted it to work was that artisted that used the print rooms would be able to do it at a discount if they sold there work threw our store and then maybe once a week have a screen print workshop that people could get involved with. I’m hoping this starts off but it will probably be in summer when I’m back at home.
Photo Shoot I was asked to be a model for a photoshoot around Brighton from a Fashion Communications student. The photoshoot was for a magazine based in Brighton with a retro 1980’s vibe.
I was modelling with two other guys and in doing this I had to be confident with myself and concious of what the other models were doing so we looked good one photo together (as there were so many cameras) and it not look like three seperate componants in one photo.
While being a model I got to see the process of styling, choosing location and makeup for the shoots to get this retro glam look. It was really interesting to see how a group of stylists, makeup artist and photographers work as a team to plan a shoot.
Although I have modelled before with just a photographer student, it was different this time because it was a whole team working together. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and learning about how a group works together.