Theme:
observation
Context:
Scientists probe the connection between sight and touch in the brain
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110908141443.htm
A touching sight: SII/PV activation during the observation and experience of touch. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15091347
Watching the movie scene in which a tarantula crawls on James Bond’s chest can make us literally shiver--as if the spider crawled on our own chest. There is an obvious connection between touching and sight, what we see can reflect immediately by ‘tactile empathy’.There are many theories can prove that the neural mechanisms enabling our own sensations of touch may therefore be a window also to our understanding of touch. This theory inspired me about using touching to understand objects--in other words, understanding what we see.
Method:
I’ll do teamwork with my classmate, touching her face and drawing her expression without eyes open.
Response:
It is easy to distinguish the different expression by touch. By touching the face, we can find is her mouth open? Is she mowing? However, the most difficult part is drawing at the right place, the movement can’t coordinate with the brain precisely when eyes closed.
Reflection:
In the first class of this semester, we studied how to find objects. Observation is an essential part of all work. It not only provides material for scientific research and experiment but also in art. Many masterpieces are inspired by observation at the beginning. In this lesson, the most interesting part I learned is that observation can not only use eyes but also through smelling, touching and hearing. The world presented by another sense is totally different, which is very helpful for me to make animation.
Theme:
Tinkering as a method
Context
The elements of cute character design https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/the-ele-ments-of-cute-character-design--vector-3533
5 Physical Traits That Determine if a Character Is Evil http://www.cracked.com/ blog/5-physical-traits-that-determine-if-character-evil/
Minions
To this theme, it is necessary to explain what is cute. In general, the small and young creature may make people feel cute, this is because newborns and infants human beings are not able to survive without help and care by adults. So a newborn needs certain characteristics which show its helplessness and need for protection so that adults are requested to take care of the baby. It has been scientifically proven that a baby’s proportions evoke such behavior. There are several principles we should follow: first of all, cute characters need big and round heads. Secondly, the eyes and ears are placed proportionally low in the face and on the skull. Then, forms of characters should stay around. It can also be useful to infringe upon some of the elements, for example by combining cute and non-cute elements, applying hard contrasts or very dark colors or by inventing a background story that shows that the character isn’t cute at all but evil and wicked.
Method
I am interested in character design and I want to draw a cute and evil virus.
I’ll do the research and change the kind of virus and then add the face and change it to make my character looked cute but evil.
Response
The result with this work is pretty cute, I think the outcome balance the cute and evil, which can easily figure out it is a bad guy. During the process I can immediately find some of the elements are not suitable for the character, these elements are either too cute or too ugly.
Reflection
The theme of this lesson is tinkering. My understanding of it is to try different methods
as much as possible in the project, opening our mind, and not care about the result, it is an essential process in making. The spark of random event collision can make the works better.with the spark of coincidence, the outcome will become better.
Response
It is an interesting experience for me because I haven’t make stop motion animation before. It is really hard to put the object and hold the position at the same time. What’s more, I use my phone to shot pictures, so the image quality is not very good and I have to put a lot of time to beautify photos. If I have more professional equipment, I think I can do better.
Reflection
This week our theme is to find objects, objects have numerous possibilities, and our task is to find these possibilities from different points. I used my earphone, as the most commonly used object. I think that wearing earphones could keep people from the noise and immerse them in their own worlds. This is also an important reason why I decided to use stop-motion animation to represent the theme. I want to use stop-motion animation to represent the real world, and then use 2D animation to show the inner world with the headphones. This is also the first time for me to make stop motion animation so I get a lot of experience.
Theme
Find object
Context
How to make HAMBURGERS, guldieshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oGJnr3wZdY
The stop motion by Guldies is about making a hamburger, he uses many colors of clay to make different parts of the hamburger. The animation is really smooth and even confused me if he made his by 3D models. I think maybe he combines the stop motion animation with 3D and makes the transition such smooth. This inspired me the idea of combining 2D and stop motion animation.
Method
When I see this theme, the first object that comes to my mind is my new headphone. To begin with, I’ll take photos for plasticine and headphone, then import them in After Effects to make stop motion animation. Finally, I ‘ll draw some animation to link the reality and 2D world.
CPS is my favorite lesson this semester. Initially, I really struggled with it because many themes I have never considered about and it takes a lot of times for me to find an idea. However, after a few weeks of exercises, I became to enjoy each practice and have fun with them.
I feel like I am an explorer walking on an unpredictable road which may meet challenge or happiness. This is similar to life, we don’t know what will happen next but always have experience. Therefore, I draw a long picture of a falling star. It summons the courage to burns the life and fall from the sky, trying to see the different worlds with its last time. When it passes through the building, it will meet various kinds of people and things. Fortunately, the star across the earth and breaks the space, coming to another world. I make the picture extremely long, so we can’t see the next plot when we read it. Just like the weekly practice of cps, we will never know what theme we have next week.
Weekly exercises help me a lot. On one hand, I can see my improvement when gathering up and rethinking my exercises. On the other hand, they provide inspiration for my studio project. For instance, the exercise of tinkering provides a chance for me to test my character design. Lessons in week 8 taught me the importance of time and how to use it to enhance your work, which impelled me to reconsider the timing of my abstract animation.