Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Project 2 : Stop Motion Frame Animation


D U E : 

[Thursday, 9.12]

Project 2 [Stop Motion Frame Animation].
Ramifications to be explained below!


   

P R O J E C T 2 .

"Stop Motion Frame Animation"
aka. SMFA aka. Something Mother Frickin' Awesome.



DEMO FOR PROJECT (PHOTOSHOP (easier) or FLASH (advanced) : September 5, classtime 

.




[Above two.]

4:3 ratio examples of the
general aesthetic that you will
feel comfortable for this project.
Food for imagination.

[Below!]
A set of examples for which to think
of doing our animations based on Project 1.
Using a special feature called "frame
animation" in Photoshop CS6.
(All PS beyond CS3 have this.)


 


(By the way, to embed video vertically like this...
Copy the embed code from Youtube/Vimeo/etc
and punch in place of the normal dimensions
tallscreen dimensions. This (for the blog)
measures to 320(w)x640(h).
I will demonstrate this in a demo.
Explained more below too.

For some reason or another, quality may be lost
through embedding in that fashion. Do note.
I will of course understand the difference.


Only ONE animation is required. You have three different panels for the project 1 triptychs, but need to make only one video-animation here appropriating visuals from it. Same dimensions as triptychs! Using the aforementioned 'frame animation' feature on Photoshop CS6. Each iMac in the lab should have CS6 installed. If you wish to add ingredients or alter existing 'layers' in your Photoshop file to even spice up the animation more, go for it!

Ever hear of or adore programs such as Flash or After Effects? Photoshop animation is a very effective vessel towards realizing a workflow in those time-to-time complicated environments. Think of the frame animation feature as the very fundamentals of animation. Like Brad Bird says, 'you are an actor in a moment for a long time'. If you know little of animation, here is a great place to start. If you are more seasoned, there is never a bad time to brush up on basics while inserting the theory you are reading.

Rules.
-Must be at least 10 seconds. Not to say it can be longer, but do use time wisely. 10 seconds (depending on what you undergo) may be intense enough. A fluid enough animation at 0.2 seconds per frame would need at least 50 different frames to be arranged to fulfill the 10 seconds.
-Export frame animations at 1080(w)x1920(h) resolution from Photoshop.
-Export as "H264" at "animation medium quality". You can go higher, but certain settings at longer lengths make the animation go up to 8GB+ (!!!).
-Must be uploaded to a video aggregate site (Youtube, Vimeo, etc) and embedded to your blog by due date. Preferably embedded in the format I utilized above, but not necessary. 

See that [COMPOSE] [HTML] duo of buttons at the top left of editing Blogger?





Top left. Below orange [B].


You will copy the embed code from your original video page onto Blogger and paste it via [HTML] to get results. ALONG with a more abridged artist statement from your triptych project. This may not be in as much further detail than your triptych image(s) as the visual content is the same, but strive to think how the meaning changed with video! That will suffice.

We will go over in class, but additional consider THIS artist when developing ideas :http://www.tinkin.com

[Below is an abridged version of an in-class demo of the program!]


1. OPEN your Photoshop file in Photoshop!





2. Look towards the bottom left. There should be an option
for TIMELINE. Select it. There may be another option to
decipher between VIDEO and FRAME ANIMATION.
You want FRAME ANIMATION. Select that. You will
get at the bottom a single frame to work with.


3. Think of animating this "literally" like a stop motion
animation in reality. You will tediously place each little
object in its place... Then take a snapshot! (Repped in
the program as a 'frame' or 'one of those boxes'.)
 Arrange one by one your layers throughout the timeline
that you want to be seen in that moment in time.


4. When done with a frame, click "paper" icon to make a
duplicate frame of the one you have before. OR... look for the
"fading circle" icon to TWEEN. Basically, edit a
second frame to be the end spot of your first frame...
Highlight both frames... select TWEEN... And add
however many frames needed to smoothly animate
in between the two! It takes not long to understand.


5. Recognize how long each frame is. Mine is 0.1 seconds a piece.
That means 10 frames per second. And 50 for 5 seconds, the MINIMUM
amount needed for the assignment. The "0.1" can be edited as well.


6. When ready to put online, go to FILE -> EXPORT -> RENDER VIDEO.
Again, preferred quality settings : change "Quicktime Movie" to "h264"
and "Animation High Quality" to "Medium Quality". Below is a cap.






In addition : There is a slightly more advanced way of creating this animation, utilizing FLASH CS6. Please get with me directly if you would like to learn this method. A primary advantage of it : It allows for rotation and resizing between frames, as Photoshop CS6 does not. I will be going over this along with Photoshop for an in-class demo, September 5.


Most important is to figure out the bare bones of animation for the project. You will want to know how to place your layers in the frames, tweening, durations, movement, etc. Essentially the animation tool allows you to use your layers in an image to animate between them- it is really that simple - the complexity is in figuring out the various tools and using them effectively. Attend office hours and Dillon's hours. Have fun and get started immediately! 




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