MA Character Animation
Jess Tindall-Foskett

Month: February 2023

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Lip Sync 2

Stop Motion Lip Sync exercise using a Vine audio. I’m aware of lighting inconsistencies and if I were to do this scene again I would pre-make the mouths to then swap out between sounds.

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Storytelling Workshop – 27/02/23

This is a list of everything we accomplished within the session! I was both surprised and impressed at mine and my peers abilities to loosen up and learn so much.
We had an exercise where we had to pick a film and strip its plot down to its “barest bones”. This enabled us to prioritise the things that matter most within a story, and allowed us to focus on labelling the variety of emotions those different plot points evoke. I chose the film “Scream” and had to force myself to let go of information I previously thought of as integral, such as a characters age or gender. It was a great exercise for me in particular as I am very used to writing in a passive form, but Lucy noticed that and encouraged me to write from a more active perspective – that of the protagonist and the subsequent actions they take. We then had to draw the plot through different iterations of water – whatever emotion the plot point evoked within us we had to express on the page! This freed me up creatively and encouraged idea generation.
Together as a collective group we identified various archetypal tropes often assigned to characters – we then broke off into smaller groups to discuss the specific traits of the archetype we’d chosen. My partner and I chose “The Maiden” as I find the damsel in distress character an incredibly interesting case study, both in her most stereotypical form and the ones that subvert them. This exercise, along with the other group work exercises encouraged me to be sociable and relaxed around my peers as we were all actively participating and learning not to take ourselves too seriously in the process.
At the end, my partner and I had to choose a few different tropes and create a story based around how the archetypes would interact with each other. I feel that my most important take away from this last segment was a growing awareness that characters can adapt and evolve into various archetypes, and go on developmental journeys that change their internal philosophies!
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Theoretical and Historical Development of Animation

This post shall provide a window of perspective into some of the ways I’ve been developing my understanding of the theoretical and historical elements of animation.

  • I have been reading “Understanding Animation” (1998) by Paul Wells, and using it as a frame of reference in terms of each new project I embark on. Through this book I am developing stronger critical skills which is enabling me to analyse animated media through more of an academic lens.
  • I have been checking the Dragonframe websites’ ‘Showcase’ area regularly, which is a great place for scoping out new and upcoming animated films that have been made using Dragonframe. As I am incredibly passionate about stop motion, being able to keep up to date on how others within the industry and community are utilizing the tools I have accessible to me is enabling me to stay creatively inspired and encourages idea generation!
  • I attended the Lisbon, Portugal “Monstra” Animation Festival last year which exposed me to a great deal of creatives and allowed me to network with others, many of which I am still in contact with today! While I was there, they had a featured Joanna Quinn exhibition, where they showcased a collection of her sketches as well as her latest film. Her traditional style and expressive color palettes and character designs have been an inspiring choice to witness that has since influenced my own style.
  • I own a copy of Peter Hames’ “The Czechoslovakian New Wave” (1985) as its a movement that I’m endlessly fascinated by and am always eager to learn more about. Eastern European Surrealist media, particularly Czech New Wave, is an art movement that I constantly try to pick apart and explore as an artist, as I find that it produces an incredibly unique atmosphere.
  • I’ve been keeping up to date on popular animated releases on Netflix – “The House“, “Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio“, “Arcane“, “Love, Death and Robots“, “Bojack Horseman“
  • Checking out “Short of the Week“, similar to the Dragonframe Showcase, is a great way to stay up to date on new animated releases. It’s also great to see what makes shorts successful in getting elected for festivals and nominations. Particular favorites include “Train of Thought” by Leo Bridle and Ben Thomas, and “The Cat with Hands” by Robert Morgan.
  • A particular animator/director that I have recently been watching the works of is Terry Gilliam, who has a very recognisable style.
  • Another Animator I’ve been drawing inspiration from recently has been Yuri Norstein, particularly for his “Hedgehog in the Fog” -This feeds into my aforementioned interest in Eastern European animation, especially with this paper-cut out stop motion style. It is incredibly evocative and in my opinion, both equal parts unsettling and alluring.

These individual experiences all intersect with one another, fusing into a strong foundation of knowledge for me to move forwards with as an animator and artist. The skills and awareness of myriad techniques that I am developing will continue to help me far down the line of my own professional development, as well as exposing me to the joy of thousands of others’ hard work. The more information and data I gather on various animation styles and movements, the more I develop my internal understanding of the shape of the animation landscape as a whole, which since embarking on this course, has already improved significantly!

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Facial Acting Ver 1

This has been a really useful process as I have developed my observational skills and I am building a stronger understanding of timing. It’s been really useful learning to act out scenes and use myself as reference, as it is helping to improve the authenticity behind my animation!

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Body Acting

In this session we had to pick one of our peers character designs to animate. I chose one of Lavanya’s stop motion puppets, “T-Man”, as I thought he was adorable due to his leafy head. This video depicts my roughs of T-Man finding a stick, waving it around and then jumping on it as if it were a witch’s broom. I am excited to clean up this animation and smooth it out with more inbetweens.