Series Openings - Use of Freeze-Frame

Powerpuff Girls

At the start of the opening, just the silhouette of Professor Utonium is shown on a colored background with only certain smaller details in other bright colors being animated, which makes them stand out. The fact that the silhouette is frozen makes the animated part stand out even more, without any distraction from other movement. A lot of different parts of this opening has stationary images and scenes, making it feel almost comic book like. I think this is a good technique for showing action, or that action is about to happen as that is what is usually associated with comic books. In fact, this is used for most of the first 30 seconds, giving you to get used to the character designs and focus on what the narrator is actually telling you about the story. As the camera pans around the villain characters, they are frozen to, so that your eyes just follow the camera don't get distracted.




Snatch

Though Snatch is not an animated title sequence or even series, I do like their way of introducing characters. Again, they freeze on each character as in introduction, but they desaturate the character for the duration of it, instead putting a plain colored background behind them and the name of the character. This gives you time to get used to their face and appearance without any distraction, especially as the background colors are quite plain and toned down. The text gives you a name to put to the face so that it's easier to keep up with characters from the start of the film. I do think that some of the introductions could have been on for longer as you don't get much time for it to sink in, but I do think that it is a good strategy and uses a lot of the other introductory techniques mentioned in some of my other blog posts.



 RocknRolla

Again, RocknRolla isn't an animated sequence but I do like the way it concentrates on character, who stand out even more because of the simple colors. The yellowish tone of the video reminds me almost of paper, making the black feel like ink. This is helped by the kind of purplish and red qualities in some of the black backgrounds.The difference in detail and contrast between the characters and backgrounds also give it an almost collage sort of feel, and that allows for more layers and more different images to be put in the background without taking away from the main subjects (the characters). I think that this probably does work better with a more realistic or live action kind of style, but could definitely be interesting to experiment with in an animated only video.

Series Openings - Use of Silhouette

Silhouettes are a very big thing in tv show openings- especially ones filled with action. They emphasise the shape of characters which, if a character designer has done their job properly, should give you some indication of ht sort of character they are and their personalities.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Justice League Unlimited

For large groups or teams, especially in superhero shows, a silhouette with all of the cast is often used. This gives you some comparison of all of the characters, and is used to make the sequence more dramatic.Usually they are found at the end of a sequence, as a kind of summary of what the show is or who the show is about. Having zoomed in silhouettes like the top image makes you pay closer attention to each character individually, with some lighter grey areas to set a few apart, as the smaller characters could easily get lost among the larger ones. In the second example, the characters are much further away, although they do move closer to the camera. They are all shown much more as a team, one single unit together, and feels a lot less personal. This does give the team more of a sense of professionalism or seriousness, which makes sense; Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes [first image] is a lot more of a comedy kind of show, and focuses a lot more on character, whereas Justice League Unlimited does a lot more with heavy plot lines and action.

Beware The Batman

Batman The Animated Series

Batman has always been known for it's seriousness and these two animated series are no exception. They use silhouettes to create drama as well as using it to show us things from an ordinary citizen or even criminals' point of view in the show; you can't see any detail properly, but just from the silhouette you know that it's batman and something's about to happen. I really like the idea of making the whole background a sihouette as well in Beware the Batman; a black bat silhouette wouldn't stand out against the background as much as it does in BTAS, but that allows highlights and other colors to appear, making characters and certain parts of buildings to stand out. This makes everything feel less repetitive than just a silhouetted fight scene and also builds up anticipation for what will be highlighted and concentrated on next.

Series Openings - Use Of Typography

In openings, an important thing to do is to introduce your characters. One of the best ways (that actually gets your audience remember the characters' names) is by using typography to show each character.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles  does this in an almost comic book style, freezing the screen and arranging the text as if it is one panel on a page. All color is taken out of the frame apart from one, a different color given to each character. Since the easiest way to tell the TMNT characters apart is by the color of their mask, this helps the audience to associate each name with a color, so that you can tell the characters apart a lot easier. I think this works really well, and it would even work for characters that are easier to tell apart.




In Teen Titans, the use of typography is a lot different - after the introduction of the show's title at the start, a lot of the letters are used to lead on to the next scene of the title sequence, being either a background or just a path into the next shot. They are again used later on to give you some kind of background on the characters; the negative space around the letters is instead filled with footage or something relating to that character with the text itself staying stationary in black. Again color is used in association with each character, to help them stand out.



Green Lantern The Animated series also uses this idea of animating the text while introducing a character, but instead they put the setting - space - inside the text and fill the negative space with scenes from the show that introduce each character, instead of putting them in the foreground. I think this is a good way of setting the scene and introducing everyone - there isn't as much that you need to concentrate on, so it is easier to watch but at the same time, I don't think that it can give you as much character information as the Teen Titans opening manages to.




 In the Motorcity opening, text is used very simply; for each of the characters' introduction shots, their names are placed in the middle of the screen in the same color, font and size. Being white, your eyes are drawn to the text first, so you read the name, then register the color around it - again a different color is associated with each character and then you watch the scenes that are cut and pasted together in the background, to give you an idea of what sort of character they are and how they look in the show.

Steven Universe's color co-ordination is more subtle I think, not trying to make the colors stand out for each character, but still trying to give you a vague sense of association with that character. There is a lot more emphasis on the name, and less animation going on in the background as a much more plain and simple introduction for the character. As this show is for a younger audience, and is usually a fair bit calmer than some of the animations above, I think that this is a good technique to get you remembering the character, and doesn't give you information overload. This opening is a lot more about setting the scene, so this approach works well.

Borderlands is a game rather than a TV show, but it uses very interesting introductions or each of the characters that are a very good way of giving you a feel for what they are like. I think it could be interesting to experiment with something like this if I had the time to, as it definitely makes you remember the characters more.

Live Action Series Openings

Even though I am making an animated title sequence, I have picked out a few of my favorite live action title sequences to see what sort of things they include, how the get a message across if any and what sort of introduction their characters have.

Teen Wolf



Teen Wolf's opening sticks to a minimum of colors, using mostly light and desaturated clips to get its point across. Certain characters are depicted different amounts of times, depending on what different plot lines they are involved in or the center of, meaning that the openings change slightly with every season. It uses a lot of symbolism and cryptic clues  about the show, things that you aren't likely to pick up on until after watching the show (i.e the importance of the tree/roots, the direction certain characters are moving in and why). In some cases, the opening is foreshadowing events to come in the series, and I think that's appreciated more the more episodes that are watched. Even though I love this approach to opening credits, I am not sure how well it would work out for my project - since I am only making an opening and not a series to go along with it, I think that things should be at least a bit more obvious and make sense to the casual viewer, whether they would be intending on watching the show afterwards or not.


Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow is again mostly desaturated, but concentrates a lot more on silhouettes and showing full scenes from a distance, rather than concentrating on characters. Backgrounds are used a lot more both for framing - especially with the tree silhouettes - and to give you a sense of where the show is set. Characters are shown with less symbolism, but you get a larger sense of what their role is in the show and how they act, which is a much stronger introduction; where Teen Wolf's opening makes a lot more sense when you are already familiar with the show and characters, Sleepy Hollow's explains a lot more, and is very welcome to new viewers. One of the differences between the two openings is that TW's is for season 2, with season 1 not having any opening and SH's is for their first and only season, which is why they need a much larger introduction.

Grimm



The opening of Grimm uses a lot of shotframing to show two sides of the narrative at once, with both the supernatural and the normal side of the characters' lives. The colors used are mostly to set the scenes apart in my opinion, as they don't seem to corelate that much the the characters being shown at the time. They do appear for the more energetic and dangerous scenes though, making them stand out more than the normal scenes. This helps to make the show seem much more excited and to put emphasis on the action that viewers will be expecting. To split the screen apart, they use a teared line, which is used to make both sides seem more like pages from a book, which is a very important symbol throughout the show and is the key object that actually gets a lot of the plot points moving.


Musketeers

The opening for BBC's Musketeers (2014) uses lots of inks and silhouettes. The black ink runs over the page, creating a silhouette of the character/scene concentrated on in that particular shot, and then as detail is overlaid and different inks and special effects are laid over the background, the characters etc quickly become clearer. This not only puts emphasis on the surrounds of the character, showing hints to when/where the show is set with maps and calligraphy that you would associate with older times, but also gives you an order of things to look at. I really like how the backgrounds are made up of different colored inks and different amounts of live action footage and not; it helps to show their ever changing surroundings as they go on different adventures and achieve different things. I think that it also helps to but emphasis on the differences between characters, and the kinds of things that their character arcs revolve around, whether it is being the center of power, a romantic plot or violence.

All of these shows contain a lot of action and violence, which is something that you often see in superhero shows, though usually to a lesser extent. I think that I can take some of these ideas, like silhouettes and framing to show more about my characters and their backgrounds without having to explain it all out, and make it easier for the casual viewer to understand.

The Princess and the Frog

One of the things that I love about this video is how the music is very different than a lot of typical Disney songs, which is reflected in the animation - less bold lines and using a more tonal approach. the warm colors work nicely with the upbeat tempo of the song, and they don't change drastically throughout the video, with the music staying at a steady rhythm throughout the video. The music is less childlike and more sophisticated, and the video uses longer and more swirly shapes. I think this shows quite well how the idea of this film moves slightly further away from the stereotypical Disney Princess kind of plot and theme; The Princess and the Frog feels much more like a coming of ago kind of film, and shows goal that involve work and careers rather than just a girl dreaming of romance. I think that the style of the animation shows Tiana's attempts to stand out, and to have a very put together sort of plan, and using the sort of smoother music that appeals to a slightly older audience than the sort of pop-ish kind you would find in Hercules or The Little Mermaid helps to cement this idea.

Giant Steps - Michael Levy

This animation starts off quite simple with only two colors and plain shapes, slowly becoming more complex with larger structures and bolder shapes and the music begins to develop into something more fun and lively.  The movement of the shapes is timed to directly correlate with certain notes and bars, making it very effective and entertaining.

Through the course of watching this video, I didn't even realise the change from 2D to 3D shapes until the end; it makes the transition so naturally. Different camera angled are used when there are more extreme changes from one note to another, zooming through the structures creating from the rest of the music. I do think that some of the colors used later are slightly out of place- I wouldn't have put teals and oranges with this kind of music, but I do understand the effect Levy is trying to create by putting very bold, contrasting colours in the animation along with the darker and warmer colours that work well with the 'classy' and 'jazz feel' of the music.

Tom and Jerry Sound Effects

This chase/fight scene on Tom and Jerry has a lot of emphasis on movement, so most of the sounds used correlate to this. From the start there's the sound of extremely quick running, before the sound of Tom being thrown into a pillar. Throwing a cat at a hard surface wouldn't usually make that noise, but the sound effect they chose to use puts emphasis on the force used and the violence between Tom and the Bulldog. As Tom and Jerry run off again, the Bulldog has to turn around, and begin running. There is a slight delay between the movement of the Bulldog running and the next speedy sound effect used, putting emphasis on the a lag between him generating enough force to run, and actually running. This is to make his actions seem much more extreme, for both a comedic effect and the sense of danger that Tom is in.

There is then a scene where all 3 characters are hitting each other with baseball bats. To stop the cartoon from becoming too violent for it's audience, the bat hits are all given a different pitch and timed to create a kind of tune, turning the scene back to comedy.

Quiet, calmer music is put in the background when there is a non-violent scene, creating a ore mellow effect. This is mostly used to contrast the other scenes which use sound to show a lot of the actual action and movement going on. The quieter music allows us to concentrate on the dialogue and to absorb what has happened in the faster scenes. I think this approach works, but I think that there are probably better ways to tell stories than through repetitive action and sound effects that just set the scene and have no solid plot, but that might be a reflection of the audience it is aimed at, which is not me.

Landscapes - Scotland

These drawings are of Scotland, where I stayed for a few days in my Christmas holidays. I thought that it would be a fun place to draw, since I have never been there before and had plenty of ideas of what it would look like - old, less shiny than the cities I'm used to in North England, and I think for the most part I was right. 

One of the first things I saw (on my way to where I was staying from the train station) was this building, which I think was a school. The silhouette of the tree in front of the building and the darkness all around it really made it stand out for me, so I came back the next day to try translating it to paper. I felt that using black paper would help to put emphasis on the shadows and negative space around the building , an dI used white pencil crayon to capture the lines and lit up parts of the building. I think that maybe having some white gel pen and perhaps some white paint could help to make it stand out even more, but I think that this approach has worked quite well the get the creepy, foreboding feeling I was going for.

This next drawing was of an alleyway that I spotted while walking around the city. It felt very creepy, but had some nice architecture. I used graphite to try to get some good contrast going on, but the alley doesn't look as dark as it did when I saw it; the perspective of the drawing leads you straight to the back wall, but the wall wasn't as defined as that and could have almost looked like it wasn't there if not for the windows. I still think it looks interesting though, especially with the gate in front that would box you into the dead end.

I didn;'t actually know what the National Museum of Scotland was when I passed it - I just knew that it had a really interesting shape. It almost looked like a piece of art dropped in the middle of the city, with a museum then carved into the inside of it. I used charcoal to get the thick dark lines of the shape as they were what made the whole building interesting to me, and I feel like the wonky perspective of the other building I drew next to it actually helps to give it that strange, almost unreal look that was what made the building interesting in the first place.

The National Gallery of Scotland had some very nice shapes, and I wanted top explore using shadows behind objects to make said objects stand out more, like the shadow behind all of the pillars. While I think this works (and while I really enjoyed it), I think that the blank space in front (which was the plain cement floor in front of the gallery) is slighty offputting and almost takes the gallery out of context, and puts it in some blank pocket of space. I didn't colour it because the markers I was using wouldn't fill all of that space neatly, like the block colour on the stairs in front. I couldn't find any media that would fit in and colour it well, but upon reflection I think I could have maybe tried using some inks to fill it in.

Walking down towards the Christmas markets, I saw the sun hitting the buildings ahead in a way that lit them up and almost made them glow. There were trees in front that were only silhouettes because of the time of the day, but I think I needed more contrast in this and much darker parts of the trees to make them stand out against the houses more. Also the paint on the road is too saturated, and I feel like the way I have painted it (and the amount of grey) doesn't show the curve of the road as well as I would have liked. I used water color for this so that I could get the lighting effects on the building, but I don't think it has worked as well as it could for the rest of the image.

Series Openings - Use of Shot Framing

Shot framing is a very useful technique for telling stories, whether in some form of sequential art or a still illustration. It works as a great way to introduce characters, to draw your view somewhere else and to show what roles characters have in relation to each other.










Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends does this really well to show the characters, having them run past a series of different windows, collecting another character each time. This separates them enough to give each character enough attention, and also tells you a little bit about there character as they pick them up.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles uses shot framing again to separate the character from the others, but also giving them more individual time. It shows the characters' fighting style, giving them some more personality and something to remember them by, and it shows each character in succession so that it can move onto the group shots.

Motorcity uses framing to show a close up of the character, their car and another scene involving them to give you an idea of their role, who they are and what sort of car they drive. This puts a lot of information in just a second or two including their name, giving you enough information that a first time viewer would need for watching the show.

Especially if you do not want to include text and have a large cast, this is a good way that you can introduce all characters and stop them from getting mixed up. You can also show a lot more about the character than might even be apparent in the first few episodes, giving viewers an interest in the characters and want to know more. This could be an interesting way for me to introduce my characters, so I will look at some solutions involving this.

Landscapes - Stoke

In my Christmas Holidays, I also visited Stoke (specifically Winterley) and I wasn't expecting it to be so... middle of nowhere like. This would be interesting to draw though, since I haven't really draw much like that before. It was definitely different, but I found myself less inspired than I hoped,

The place I was staying was very nicely decorated for Christmas, and I really liked all the little details and shapes that were involved. This made me want to focus on the lines of everything so that I could show what was there without getting too distracted by colour. I still used it for the lines itself to indicate what everything looked like (and which makes it even more obvious that it was at Christmas). I think that trying more wet media for this could have been nice though, maybe painting it in an almost old fashioned sort of style, since that is what the house reminded me of.

Next, I went into the actual village, which looked like something straight off a Christmas card. Again, I really enjoyed all the little details and Christmas decorations, so I chose to do more lineart, and this time without colours. I think zooming in to the main scene would have been better since the road and perspective doesn't really help much, and doesn't tell you much about the place. Again a painted approach could have been nice, but that is probably again just because it reminds me of old paintings I have seen.

The little events for Christmas were very cute, and made it seem a lot busier than the rest of the things I had seen in Stoke. I wanted to use white lines to emphasise the winter/snowy/Christmas feeling of the scene, but I think choosing an area more more fun and much busier would have worked more, or zooming in to add more details and the rest of the large toy soldier on the right hand side of the image.

There was a large farm shop, with a small barn holding pigs and goats. I really liked all of the wooden beams, and the consistency of shapes within the structure, but that meant that it would be a little harder to draw because everything would have to be drawn very much the same.  I thought it would be nice to get contrast and make the shapes stand out with charcoal, but again I think this would have worked better if I had zoomed out. I didn't realise that I had done only lines again, getting too carried away with the shapes. I think that pencil crayon could have been good for this, especially for the textures of the hay that I found harder to show with a soft medium like charcoal.

We also passed a lot of field as we walked to places, making it feel even more country side. I decided to paint with coffee because it helps reinforce the countryside feel, and I think it also helps to show the cheery weather of the day. I didn't have time to sit down and draw the scene as I was walking past, so this was done from photograph, which gave me more time to sit down and paint this. I think that this is more effective than my other drawings from Stoke because it managed to show the atmosphere of the place a lot more than the line drawings.

A Tale In The Sting

For this project we have 3 briefs to choose from;

- Idents - a choice of 4 channels to create 10 second idents for - 10 seconds each with logos and permission for audio used

- Titles - animated sequence for a book(or graphic novel) to film adaption with something that hasn't been adapted before. Permission for audio and 40 seconds length.

- Campaign - 40 second animation for a choice of two charities to raise public awareness of the work that they do.

Idents was the first choice presented to us, and I was very tempted by the idea. 10 seconds each is not that daunting, and I could do design work for 3 different things, which would be so fun. I could experiment a lot more and try more things, but the amount of research I would have to do, plus the fact that I would have less development time for each is less appealing to me. Still, I thought it could be very good practice.

Then, we got the Titles option; 40 seconds sounds scary. However, this is something that I am very interested in doing  - the animation I would rather do (or the design work I would rather do) would be for cartoons, particularly Cartoon Network or Disney. I am also a big reader meaning that I would have a lot of choice, and I feel like I would be so much more interested in this project for the whole of the three months since I would have a grounded interest in the subject I a animating. A lot of the books I have are ones that have already been adapted, and I would rather have a lot more knowledge in a book that I have read than animating one I have read for the first time. Still, I will look into some short stories or children's books that I could animate before deciding. I also have a lot of graphic novels that I would be so excited to create animations of, so I definitely want to look into animating those. I will also research a lot of cartoon openings first, and if it seems like I have the confidence or skill level to make something like that, then that will be my choice.
I've redesigned comic book characters in the style of popular cartoons before, and it is definitely something I would like to do again.

Wonder Girl in the style of Teen Titans (2012)

Young Justice in the style of Fairly Odd Parents (2012)

I had no temptation to do Campaign at all. I'm more more interested in creating something fictional, and I feel like I don't have the enthusiasm or drive to create something like that. It is definitely not something I could concentrate on in the long term, so this option was straight out.

Schedule

3rd February - begin brainstorming and ideas. Research possible books to do and start preliminary sketches. Look into other openings and begin blogging about techniques.

7th February - begin designs - look into different styles and establish the look of the animation. Continue blogging, decide on shots/techniques before storyboarding starts.

15th February - begin storyboarding and designing; create animatics to be done for 24th February

24th February - Interim crit. Begin planning out any improvements and prepare for start of animation

3rd March - Begin animating. Draft of opening shot

10th March - Start character animations (again rough draft)

4th April - Finish character animations, rough draft animating the rest of the animation.

20th April - clean up in time for April 28th Crit

28th April - Crit; look at feed back and do any improvements possible in the time left.

+ Continuous blogging of progress throughout.