Discovery channel original Ident idea

This was my original final idea for the discovery channel ident, originally i wanted them all to do with sound so wanted to animate sound bouncing through and instrument.. but when looking back at old work i decided i wanted to do an angler fish catching it pray.

when i decided this i sat down and cut out the main shapes quickly, before adding a few other details.

all the joints were then sewn together so that they could move freely, the only one i didnt sew was the jaw, so i was/am planning to use bluetack to move the jaw up and down. i feel he needs more detail, so i may use colouring pencils or cut out more detail.

then there was deciding on the fish he was going to catch and how i planned to show the logo, so i thought maybe the logo is the fish and he eats it.... but realised it needs to be at the end of the ident.. i had a look on after effects to see what i could do and have come across the puppet tool.. so i may try to scan him in and hand a play around or animate him stop motion.. and have the logo show a different way..

BBC FOUR original Ident idea

so my idea was to do with jazz music and i wanted a sleek movement of the instruments slowly appearing in each section in neutral coloured sections, as if being drawn.. i tried to hand draw them out but it didnt look high quality enough for the channel so i decided to try again on flash... before i realised i couldn't understand flash and none of the tutorials were teaching me what i wanted..

i feel like i will need to do this on photoshop or try hand drawing it again, although i have a few other ideas i have now jumped a little to, so ill do a post on them soon and let you know how thats going.

this (although its on its side) is kind of how i wanted it to look once they all appeared on the screen.. if i could make the lines clean i think it would work really well! so i may try again on a different program when i get a new graphics cable and see how that pans out.

 

E4 Ident set development

my original idea, which i am going to try and stick with as best i can was dj squeak, mixing some decks in a large E4 box.. i feel like setting myself this task didnt help with me falling back as it was hard work to get right! and even once i did i realised the shape wasn't good for lighting and camera movement.. but you learn from your mistakes! i know i show have been doing alot of that recently!! 

although alot didnt work, i did like how it turned out, although if i had more time i would add alot more to it.. and re make most of it.. making it a standard shape set, and re-making the model so the wire can move easily, as its hard enough to make his hands and things move well at 5 fps let alone 24! But he looks pretty wicked so next time i know! 

so i built up the box with alot of left over boxes from the kitchen, taping and glueing card and wire to help get the shapes, then cutting out the speaker shapes to fit into the E4 box. On the speakers i first cut cardboard doughnut shapes and then the same on paper just slightly larger to make them pop out a bit. If i had planned it better, or made it again i would try and hand the speakers actual boxes that sink in with mesh over the top possibly to make them seem more real, and paint pva glue or something over the mesh to stop it moving during animation. 

i printed the E4 simple multiple times in different sizes like decoration, or how you see a clubs logo or tag everywhere, along with djs. the boxes in front of him were meant to become his decks but they need to be re made... 

A Tale in the Sting - BBC4 Idents Research

Next I looked at the BBC4 idents, they are often very clean, and stylish and split into 4 sections in some way, there most resent ones are often like a mash up on some filmed imagery, maybe mirrored in some way.

My idea for this one has been changing constantly with originally me wanting to base it on music and jazz, I may still do this but I am tempted to just do one animation, something quite clean, maybe with objects moving around, and later try and mirror it or layer it to create the 4 segments subtly.
These are celebrating digital channel of the year, which shows in the quality and a simple way to represent such a thing.

Above you cab see the sharp colours they have used trying to keep it quite sophisticated, they see them selves as a channel open to new ideas, and one that will are things you usually do not get the chance to see. an alternative channel for a slightly older age range then E4 effectively.

I do like the imagery, and how the images break up into those 4 areas that BBC4 seem to keep as a main signature. With there idents there is often just music, being used as a nice visual while the next show is introduced, unlike E4 which seems to have a lot of there idents as animations on there own, with there more refined ones like the walking E4 robot idents doing a similar thing to these ones.

also in line with BBC One and BBC Two, the channel logo is now unboxed and centred throughout trailers. But there is still anew end-board design to more closely fit in with the channel's idents and new promo.

 

Here they show the unboxed design, but it changed back into the box for clarity and recognition, also these idents advertise an up coming tv show or documentary of some sort in a very simple manor.

A Tale in the Sting - E4 Idents Research

E4 often have a mixture of there own idents, and often have competitions for the public to create alot of there stings for there channel. There channels main ones often follow a theme, with there recent mascot being a big E4 shaped robot. they have a number of repeating idents, with slight alterations in texts and little surprises within each one to look out for.

I quite liked how it makes using and recycling the same material more exciting, saving alot of time and money. The age range for there channel is young adults and late teens mostly so the idents and stings need to appeal to these audiences, which is why opening up the chance for the young public to create some crazy small animations for the channel to me at least inspires me and makes me laugh, makes me feel more involved in what they are trying to do.

also how they add him and the text into a live action set, reacting to his surroundings, with a dog as a companion, E4 always attempt to make there 'stings' that little bit different, trying to make them funny, sometimes very crudely done and so they relate to the kind of shows the channel airs. 

When doing my own E4 ident i will need to conciser the colours and shapes, making it entertaining and relevant to around my own age range. Making sure i keep into consideration, the style so if i decide to do a stop motion e4 sting like i originally planned, which would mean re-thinking my original set and lighting etc. Or i try to create something on Photoshop. I need to learn to conciser the framing more, and the angles working more on my story boards.

I really do like there mixture of idents, and how they all represent the channel perfectly and what they are trying to get across just each in very different ways.each being usually a very simple funny idea, which is what i struggle with probably, keeping it simple. 

ceramics - armatures

So here is my ceramics post finally. Ceramics was one of my favourite inductions as we got to get hands on with clay, plaster scene and wire. It did make me realise it is up the top of my list on things i want to specialise in, and i think making props and things for stop motion animations or even just working more with clay is something i want to work at but probably more so in my spare time, as my animation skills need alot of improving.

Here is my original sketch of my character DJ Squeak, we measured out the size of the block the armature would be attached to, along with the side of our characters in order to get all the measurements right.

I also did a side view to the sam proportions to help when it came modelling him. 

Although the wire we used was a bit to stiff for what we were doing (from what i have used before and taking into account the size of the model as its quite small) i realised this more later once i tried to animate with him. So we used the guide on the paper to get the limbs the write size for the armature, and twisted the wire around each other. we also drilled a small hole in a peice of wood and put a stand in to attach the armature to

 by twisting the wire around the pole like that it works as rigging for the armature, which means it is stable and can be moved freely, and even made to jump if so needed to. Also by having it like this simply it can be taken off and moved easily.

 next we used milliput which contains 2 tubes of a plaster scene feeling texture, but when mixed together soon hardens rock solid. Spaces need to be left for the joints, so the model will move more like a person, with the joints in the right places. I made the head hollow, filling it with tissue paper so it wasn't to heavy and wouldn't drag the model down.

We then used plasters over the joints so the plaster scene would stick better, which is an amazing idea and i wish i has know about it sooner! i then started adding the plasterscene, in big lumps at first mostly until i got the shape and scale right to what i wanted. 

 Once i felt it was about right i started smoothing it, adding little bits here and there as i went. adding delicate things like the ears to the top of the head.

 The whiskers were cut off a broom and stuck into the side of his head carefully, and the eyes made out of miliput, with pricks in the middle in order to move the eyes when animating with a pin or something sharp. i made small holes into his head, then added the eye lids onto him

 I had to take the eyes out to paint them white, which left him looking a little creepy.. also the tail was added later, and just stuck in the back, which worked ok but next time maybe i will have to concider that when making the frame.

i made the headphones out or wire and plaster scene, later adding a curly wire to one side to make them look more real.

when the eyes first went back in, it was hard to get the eye lids right as i needed to re model the head a little bit once more, but i got there in the end.

and there we go! i should really re-make him still, a little larger and with different wire but apart from that i was quite happy with how he turned out once i fixed his eyes!