Potential areas of research:

To begin with I’m not sure what I am interested in writing my thesis on so I will just brainstorm questions and choose one that stands out.

Has commercialisation of stylised 3D Animation lead it to be less experimental in recent years? (For example Disney making a lot of characters with similar features)

How can music transform context in animation?

Why does stylised 3D animation still target children with the majority of its work compared to 2D animation branching into more adult audiences? (examples including Smiling Friends, Bojack Horseman, Rick and Morty, Archer)

This week we watched more experimental animation work.

Stan Brakhage – Dog Star Man

I feel like this work represents formative abstraction.

Categorisation

The genre of this work I would say is a documentary – he is sharing his journey up the mountain with his dog documenting it along the way with different imagery. It is an odd film as the filmmaker himself is the protagonist, and this feels strange as you are experiencing what he is experiencing through a lens he is choosing. Often during the film it can be unclear what you are looking at, and it makes the audience think about what it is they are looking at, giving every member a uniquely different experience when viewing it.

Form and function

I think that the reason that he made this film is to try and share what he experienced in a way that is unconventional, forcing the audience to consider why he chose to create the film in this way. The film requires the audience to put in work as an active part of the experience to understand what is happening – unlike many modern popular films that can be viewed passively, even being understandable when not fully present (for example putting films on and using your phone midway through). His limitations in creating this film is that he is just one person with his dog, though this could be seen as a necessary element to allow for the film to exist in the way it does.

Process

The process he used to make this film is using 16mm film, colour and black and white. He uses strange and experimental techniques for the time of the film, like painting or scratching in film, distorting lenses and double exposure. I think he wanted to make this film feel very personal and unique, so using strange and unusual techniques helps to get his message and feeling across – it does not feel similar to many other films I have watched and seems a lot more interpretive, and a lot of that is due to the techniques used that further distort what is happening and confusing what is being shown.

Formal Elements

The work experiments with a lot of these elements, with a lot of different colours, movement and rhythm being used especially. Because it changes so quickly from each shot to the next, a lot of these decisions feel like they were made to elicit a more subconscious response, triggering for example what the brain associates with different colours or different ways of movement.

On graduation which area or environment of production do you wish to focus upon and why?

On graduation I think at the moment I would want to focus on the side more towards creation in the scene as opposed to steps such as rendering/lighting/compositing practices. Modelling, animation and texturing as well as aspects of simulations are what I enjoy and have the most experience with, and it is the side of this course that I feel suits me better.

What skills will you need to attain the standards required for vocational practice?

In order to attain the standards required for a job, I think that I will need to further develop my modelling, texturing and animation skills, despite them being my “strong area”, the difference between my work and professional work is still a gap. Mostly this can be achieved just through usage of the software required, however setting tasks that stretch what I am capable of is useful to push myself to learn techniques I do not already know.

How will you showcase your FMP practice for the final shows?

I will showcase my FMP practice by developing a project that goes beyond what I was capable of before, using the knowledge I have gained to create something better than anything I have made before.

Is it important to directly connect the thesis research to your practical work?

I think it is important to at least slightly connect my research to my practical work, because it will help me to actually care about the subject of my research – if it has tangible benefits to allow me to create something better due to the research then it is obviously something worthwhile for me.

Do you have an area of research you wish to conduct that is unrelated to practical element?

The only area that I would potentially be interested in would be the process of merging sound and animation elements – most animation work that I regard as high quality work heavily utilises sound and I feel like even if my job is not relating to sound, knowing more about how that department works would help allow me to better collaborate with them, as I would know what difficulties they would face, their process, etc., allowing me to better consider how I make work from a perspective that is helpful to them.