After talking with my tutors, I received some helpful information in which I am able to improve my animation by making it more effective and more readable.
I was advised to make my animation more of an image based animation because having both type and imagery, it creates a conflicting issue between both aspects and when I got told this, it made me look back and think that it will be hard for the viewer to focus on both aspects and get a sense of the story I am trying to portray in this animation, and also to rectify this it was also suggested that I create my own voice over, basically how I am telling the viewer about the movement and the story behind it.
Looking back, I will need to do some development work and develop storyboards with using just imagery to portray the movement.
In the After Effects tutorial, I was able to pick up many things about After Effects.
I have learnt how to create folders/compositions, nesting compositions, using a background colour, adding a solid layer, adding text, modifying the anchor point, modifying layer parameters such as position, scale, rotation, opacity/using key frames and the stopwatch to layer parameters over tie to create a simple animation, animating a layer, moving a letter from left to right/modifying layer parameters such as opacity, scale/easing/motion blur, making the animation path curve using bezier handles/auto orient an object as it moves, adding effects and presets to text and finally exporting your finished composition.
This will benefit me in a lot of ways for this movement project as I am able to use another programme to create my animation using most if not all the things I have learnt.
For this Movement brief, I have been asked to create an animation on a new movement containing the word ‘Ism’. I have to make this piece move but also convey a story/message across to the audience. I firstly started my research by creating a mind map.
Continuing in my research, I started by researching into different ‘Isms’, and I found a fair few ranging from art movements to political movements, and from this I started to come up with my own movements, and I came up with Dreaminism, Sleeplessism, Innerism, and Fearism, and from these started researching into each specific area and finding out what it entails, for example with Fearism, I looked into different fears ranging from slight fears to extreme fears and from that coming up with different ideas for my animation, and I did this for each idea, researching into different ism and what it means and how I can translate this into an animation.
Created my own Isms
I had a tutorial meeting with one of my tutors and I put across two of my Isms which was Fearism and Innerism, and with Fearism, I spoke about different fears and how each person has these fears ranging from the typical fear to a non conventional fear, following from that, I spoke about Innerism, Innerism is about how a person can be discriminated and bullied just because they come from a different country, this will be my own story that will be portrayed but still relating to other people coming from different countries. After explaining this to my tutor, I was advised to go with Innerism but changing the same which suited more to the story. I researched into Patriotism and what it means, and it means ‘The feeling of loving your country’, from this definition, I thought of different names for my movement such as Culturism, Nationalism, Selfism and Proudism.
In this tutorial, we had to listen to a 6 second sound clip where we had to listen to different accents for example American, British and an Essex accent, and from this accentuating different words and we interpret them.
I accentuated certain words that the different accents had to show this. This has helped me with my movement project in the way which I can accentuate different words by making the font gradually larger etc.
In this workshop, I created a GIF using Photoshop. I was given the task to make a letter from the alphabet move, so I was given the letter ‘O’, so I thought making it look like it was bouncing.Â
I think somewhere in the process of making this GIF, I went a little wrong but it is still moving which is a positive, but the practice the better it will be in the future. I can use this in future projects that involve animation.
The Panoptic Effect was theorized by Foucault and he wrote about this – Foucault (1977) Discipline, Punish, Harmonsworth: Penguin.
In this, it explains that there is a tower with wide windows, one on the inside and one on the outside, and this allows light to fill up one cell to another. It can hold any type of person with a supervisor in charge, so in this, it portrays a sense of power over the prisoners that they are being watched by a guard who they do not know whether that guard is there or not, and by the prisoners thinking they are being watched, you tend to change your behaviour as a result of being watched and this is called the Panoptic Effect, Pan being ‘everything’ and optic being ‘all seeing’, and this was explained by Foucault, and this can also be applied to the 21st Century linking to social media.
This can be applied to social media and how we portray ourselves through this, for example when posting a selfie, you as a person, always puts the best version of yourself onto different social media platforms, on these platforms, you are being ‘watched’ by thousands of people, so this causes us to change our behaviour to fit the social constructs of this.
I wanted to create something that linked back to the war and how destructive it was, so that is why I made the colours black, grey and red to show that, and using inspiration from Man Rays ‘Rayograph’ as he calls them, I created this eye image showcasing the dark and haunting atmosphere and how the eye is fading away showing the loss of the people and also in the arts throughout the First World war. Also changing the depth of the lines to create a more 3D effect, I kept some unfinished to show the destruction but also how I placed them was quite playful which links back to the Dada posters and how they laid out there posters, e.g. images on an angle, using the red to a sense of urgency.
If I had to change anything, I would have experimented more with the layout making it more adventurous and interesting but as time goes by I think I will be able to learn and pick up these skills throughout the course.
I was given the brief to create an A3 poster based on a specific Art Movement through the centuries, and the Art Movement I was given was The Dada Movement, and for this poster were given a few requirements that we had to use to create our posters and what to put in it, and these were that the grid system must be used when creating the poster, one self sought out image based on your movement, only using two colours excluding the paper colour choice, and three paragraphs explaining what the movement is, about a specific artist within that movement and my personal intake of that movement.
So firstly I started off with doing some research and finding out more about what the movement is and the history of it, and I found that the Dada Movement was in response to the war, and that it was formed in Zurich in the First World War, in response to the negative impact the war had on the different types of Arts produced by the artists. And from looking at the artwork (collages, posters, typography etc), I can see how the artists manipulated the imagery and distorting it in a way that it is unrecognizable yet you can see it’s a person, which I find is an interesting way to show the negative impact the war had not just on art but the people themselves. Also manipulating the text, typography and colour scheme to create a strong statement and show a sense of urgency with what colours they used which was red, this colour stands out and gives off the impression of a warning, people need to read this poster/article etc.
Kleine DADA Soiree, 1923 (colour litho), Schwitters, Kurt (1887-1948) & Doesburg, Theo van (1883-1931) / Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia / Bridgeman Images
Covers of the Dada magazine ‘Merz’, edited by Kurt Schwitters, 1923 (litho), German School, (20th century) / Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection / Bridgeman Images
Continuing in my research, I started to look at different layouts that were used in the Dada Movement. I drew these layouts in my sketchbook to give me a better idea of the different layouts and how they differ from one to another.
Again continuing, I then started to research and look into different artists that were involved in the movement. One of the artists I researched into was Man Ray, Hugo Ball and Francis Picabla. Man Ray was born in 1890 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was a renowned avant-garde photographer in the 20th Century. His work is very diverse and modern for its time. He was also a painter, object artist and filmmaker. Man Ray was actually inspired by Cubism and Expressionism but when he met Marcel Duchamp, he started to add to the Dada Movement into his own work. Later on his focus then started to change into Dadaism. Man Ray was one of the leading figures in this movement along side Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabla. I find his work to be very intriguing due to the way he creates his imagery, it’s as he is showing destruction and darkness within his work and I think this is achieved by the two-tone colour giving off that effect. His ‘Rayographs’ and the atmosphere he creates could give a very nice effect showing the effect of the war had on the people and the art itself.
Man Ray Photography – Max Ernst
‘Rayograph’
Hugo Ball was born in Pirmasens 1886, he studied German Literature, Philosophy and History at the Universities of Munich and Heidelberg. He then moved to Berlin to become an actor but at the time, he also started to write, contributing to the expressionist Journals, ‘Die Neue Kunst’ and ‘Die Aktion’, anticipated format of later Dada Journals. Then in mid 1916, he eventually he returned to help organise Galerie Dada, which opened in March 1917. His typography and the way he places it is very playful and gives a sense of freedom in the art to place typography on an angle, to have different fonts, just makes it very pleasing to the eye.
Man Ray Photography – Max Ernst
‘Rayograph’
Now, I started to experiment with different background layouts and colours. In a workshop, I had to create backgrounds using only 3 colours based on the movement Dada, so I thought about what the movement was and to me it was the colours black, red and orange and showing a destructive nature but yet still structured enough, so I thought about ripping the paper giving that old effect and layering these to create something quite playful but yet show the movement through it. also cutting paper into strips, grabbing paper and just sticking it down wherever it lands to see what the outcome would look like.
From all the research I have completed about what the movement is, the layouts, different fonts, I started to draw some headings in different to see which kind of font would work well in a poster format and if it links to the Dada Movement. I could always scan these in and play around with the shape and style of it to see I can create my own font for this movement poster. From looking at the different layouts and artists research, I’ve drawn out a few initial ideas of what I want my A3 poster to look like, so I started to experiment with different layout, shape and colour which is staying true to the Dada Movement but also putting my take on this movement and giving it a modernistic approach.
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These are my different ideas I have designed, most of them had a 3 grid system layout, and the last idea has a 5 grid system layout, I really wanted to experiment with the layout and placing of this images and extra details to make it modern but still having the essence of the Dada Movement. all of my initial ideas have 3 text boxes required, an image, and a heading. Now putting these ideas from paper into the programme Indesign and this is what I have created on this programme.
Three out of the 5 initial ideas, I have used an image of my great-grandmother from the World War as my image, and the others, I have used a close up of eyes because I noticed eyes were mostly always being distorted or collages, so I wanted to put that specific element into my own work which will make this link back to the Dada Movement and aesthetics.
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When talking to my lecturer to get some feedback, I was advised that I should be more adventurous with my layout design because my ideas were looking more like a magazine than a poster, so I had a few things to change like the font size by decreasing it, being a bit more adventurous and experiment with layout and adding more columns to the grid, layering imagery and text, so I was advised to develop my first initial because that had the most potential, so from this I have taken all of this on board and developed two new outcomes.
From developing from one specific design idea, I have created two new posters, which I personally feel like they capture more of the essence of a poster and the Dada Movement itself.
Kleine DADA Soiree, 1923 (colour litho), Schwitters, Kurt (1887-1948) & Doesburg, Theo van (1883-1931) / Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia / Bridgeman Images
Covers of the Dada magazine ‘Merz’, edited by Kurt Schwitters, 1923 (litho), German School, (20th century) / Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection / Bridgeman Images
“Dada: 1916-1923,” Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, April 15 to May 9, 1953, 1953 (letterpress exhibition catalogue) , Duchamp, Marcel (1887-1968) / Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, PA, USA / Gift of Jacqueline, Paul and Peter Matisse in memory of their mother, Alexina Duchamp / Bridgeman Images
I had an induction into Screen printing, I printed off an image related to my art movement which is Dada and had to create a print.
So, one of the screen printing techniques was using a paper stencil, I basically traced the image and cut out the shapes using a craft knife, making sure I left space in between the letters, I had to be very careful making sure I did not rip the thin pieces.
So from this, I had to get all my equipment needed to start printing which were a squeegee, the screen, the ink (paint mixed with an emulsifier) and the clamp with acetate stuck onto it (this is ensured I would get the same position each time), I placed the stencil onto the screen using masking tape, put some ink on the screen and using the squeegee, going on 45 degree angle, I pulled down, pushing the ink through the screen and transferring the print onto paper.
I think technique could work very well for my poster design because I would be able to manipulate and play around with different layers and colours to create a striking heading.
In today’s lecture, I learnt about ‘Bodies and Identity’ and how identity is not a fixed context and relies on the sameness and difference and from this how one person does not just have one identity e.g. race, gender etc.
I also learnt about what Heteronormativity is and that is the belief society is built upon strict norms (fixed ideas) of different (male and female) and that heterosexuality is the norm, and anything outside that transgresses as homosexuality and transsexual.
Also learning how to pick apart an academic piece of writing and analyse it and interpret that text into my own words.
workshop, I had to create backgrounds using only 3 colours based on the movement Dada, so I thought about what the movement was and to me it was the colours black, red and orange and showing a destructive nature but yet still structured enough, so I thought about ripping the paper giving that old effect and layering these to create something quite playful but yet show the movement through it. 
also cutting paper into strips, grabbing paper and just sticking it down wherever it lands to see what the outcome would look like.
different fonts, I started to draw some headings in different to see which kind of font would work well in a poster format and if it links to the Dada Movement. I could always scan these in and play around with the shape and style of it to see I can create my own font for this movement poster. From looking at the different layouts and artists research, I’ve drawn out a few initial ideas of what I want my A3 poster to look like, so I started to experiment with different layout, shape and colour which is staying true to the Dada Movement but also putting my take on this movement and giving it a modernistic approach.
my learning journal 