Reading & Writing
I have been telling stories through video for a long time. From my former life as a news producer to my current one at a private school, I have always felt strongly that video is one of the most powerful storytelling tools. One of the first steps that I take when I sit down to edit a video is choose my music. This may seem odd, but it actually helps me craft a narrative.
According to Liz Blazer in her book Animated Storytelling sound should be used as a primary compass for storytelling. The sound effects, ambient sounds, and the music you include in a piece can drastically change the message even if the story itself stays the same.
When we talk about sound there are two categories: diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. Diegetic refers to sound from a source on the screen. For instance, if a cow that is visible on camera moos that is diegetic because you can see the cow. Now, if the cow was off screen that would be non-diegetic sound.
Music, as I mentioned, can dictate the emotion for the piece, but you don’t want to get too carried away with your song selections. Blazer also recommends not getting overly attached to music you can’t get the rights to. Of course, no music is always an option too! For instance, in my stop-motion this week, I chose to refrain from adding music for the opening sequence so that the audience can pay close attention to what’s happening rather than the music.
In Chapter 8, Blazer focuses on the “the laws,” meaning how to establish a world and make it believable. There is a lot to keep in mind here, including the time and place, the physical order, the social order, and the visual order. The interesting thing about these laws is that they can be changed! Blazer just says it is important to maintain consistency and make it believable. For instance, for the physical space in your world, you can change the physical laws if it is meaningful to the story, but don’t use overly busy environments! That makes it difficult for the audience to follow without getting distracted.
RESEARCH TO INFORM
In preparation for my final stop motion projection ICM 504, I looked at some examples of audio to help inspire my own audio choices for my final animation.
Audio Examples:
I’ll admit this animation is very odd — but I think it does a good job of utilizing sound. It starts with upbeat bubbly music at the beginning and then shifts when the “popular guy” enters the frame. Of course the music turns sad (enter the violins) when he rejects her but then returns to upbeat when she meets the character who is the same height as her. Of course the ending is pretty strange, but all the sound effects that illustrate the characters walking or moving around, add to the depth of the piece.
I love this animation! It utilizes carefree music to illustrate flying through the air but it also contains other sound effects, including the birds’ flapping wings, the man pulling down his glasses and scarf, the plane noises, etc.
Titles Examples:
There is so much you can do with text! Although these examples are pretty advanced it is interesting to see how you can match your text animation with the feel and tone of your story.
I’m not really a fan of Rick and Morty, but I thought this text sequence was really creative! The artist used movement to align with their words and the inflection in their voices, which was really effective. I also enjoyed the additions beyond the text, such as the bubble popping.
I love animations where one thing flows into the next — and this is a great example. The colors are vibrant, the pace is great, and the movement aligns with the music but I particularly enjoyed how each frame is the beginning of the next movement. For example, two seconds into the animation you see a wine glass on a tray and then the wine overflows to form the chicken in the next frame.
CREATE
For my stop motion animation I chose to use the cut-out technique with construction paper to create a scene of a little girl floating into the sky with a balloon. Not much changed from my original plan, which made the execution simpler!
Overall it went pretty well and I think it was definitely an improvement from my test animation. Prior to executing this assignment, I had heard that taking the photos for the stop-motion takes the most time, but I actually found the prep work to be the most challenging.
I spent about two days just cutting out all the elements from construction paper. That had its challenges because sometimes the paper would curl and I’d have to start over. One time I glued something to the blue paper that I shouldn’t have and I had to start from scratch.
Once I got my construction paper cut-outs situated, it took me a while to set the stage. I used a DSLR camera and an overhead tripod to capture the photos. I also brought in extra fill lights, but even with that, I still had some lighting issues (you can see at one point the color of the paper shifts a little). I’m wondering if maybe I was hovering too close to the paper and it created a slight shadow?
While I was shooting the first time I accidentally swiped something on the paper and it knocked all my pieces out of the way. Again, I had to start over.
Overall, I am happy with this piece but there are definitely things I’d like to work on to make it flow a little better. I also think if I do another cut-out animation I will use a higher quality paper because this one was very cheaply made and not very sturdy.
WORKS CITED
Blazer, L. (2020). Animated storytelling: Simple steps for creating Animation & Motion Graphics. Peachpit Press.
Allison Lucas 