Month: April 2026

Week 1 & 2 – Sonic Visions

https://padlet.com/artslondon/sonic-visions-p9prsj0qulom3mv6

Audio Creation & Adobe Audition:

Receiving Audio + idea generation:

Moodboard + Moodboard Animatic:

Above is a moodboard I made inspired by the first half of my audio – I wanted it to be atmospheric due to the nature of the sounds which are quite dramatic. I am particularly drawn to making a nature based environment (a water/tree setting) with teal blues and murky greens as I think it would reflect the unsettling and eerie vibe of the audio.

I really like the overexposure in some of the photographs I selected above – the white trees/ a pale figure creates contrast with the vibrant colours – creating an almost dream-like/ ghostly aesthetic. I think it would be fun to reinterpret this concept for my animation.

The colour palette of some of these photographs reminded me of the process of Cyanotypes – so I may consider incorporating this technique within the creation of my animation – for example I could create cyanotypes of nature – such as dirt/sand/branches and scan these to help with the world-building/setting design. I could also scan these to create patterns digitally which could be then animated/edited in unusual ways.

I briefly looked at the ebook: ‘Cyanotype Toning: Using Botanicals to Tone Blueprints Naturally’ (by Annette Golaz) for inspiration:

2nd Moodboard Concept: Wasteland environment photography and some artworks by Chogiseok and smallwhitemonster on Instagram.

I think it would be interesting to have shifts within the animation from one scene (based on my previous moodboard) to another – they would be based on the same setting but one has experienced significant change: perhaps climate change/degradation/ an implication of a post-apocalypse world. I like the idea of creating this contrast with warm tones and liminal qualities.

To tie these two environments together I thought using one accent colour (of red) as shown below would work well – especially considering the sinister atmosphere of the music. The colour red could be used as a motif for death/blood especially as we hear a sound of water/ liquid throughout the audio. I quite like the idea of somehow incorporating a red kite as I can imagine this would juxtapose the scene in an interesting way; kites typically reference innocence, hope and freedom.

In the above I looked at how the two mood boards and colour palettes could work alongside one another – taking inspiration from the work of Chogiseok.

Rough initial test concepts:

In the above I took inspiration from my mood boards to quickly sketch out the two contrasting scenes (using procreate).

Notes – planning animatic:

Initial Rough animatic can be found here: https://padlet.com/artslondon/sonic-visions-p9prsj0qulom3mv6

Note: I could create a dust effect for the last scene (using after effects) with 2 layers (the top layer could turn to dust and the layer beneath reveals a barren landscape).

Week 4 & 5 – Lip Sync

Link to Padlet: https://padlet.com/artslondon/lipsync-o52uj1pj7fa8z0vy

Feedback on Rough Keys:

Following feedback I received the previous Friday, I made alterations to my work which I brought to class on Monday 9th March and I then received further feedback from another tutor (outlined below):

Link to version 5 – Titled ‘Initial rough keys (Friday 6th March)’: https://padlet.com/artslondon/lipsync-o52uj1pj7fa8z0vy

My cleaned Keys can be found titled on Padlet: https://padlet.com/artslondon/lipsync-o52uj1pj7fa8z0vy

ToonBoom – Imbetweening

Notes:

  • Try using settles to make movements look more natural  ​
  • Remember to consider easing – use timing charts to help
  • Consider arcs ​- especially for turns/wing movements
  • Could consider using smears
  • Order of work: cleanup keys, then do imbetweens cleaning up as you go ​along, then add mouth shapes
  • Remember that the brush needs to be same type and size – consistency ​
  • Rotate canvas to make lines smoother during cleanup ​
  • Scaling up and down – in closer shots the brush size will be larger – in wider shots the lineart will be thinner ​
  • Ensure you are drawing on the lineart layer ​

Considering the above notes I started doing my imbetweens. Since I knew I had limited time to do these I decided to prioritise the second scene where most of the dialogue happened (I plan to come back and do the imbetweens for the first scene and for the third and fourth).

Some of my imbetweens can be found titled ‘Imbetweens – process version’ on my padlets: https://padlet.com/artslondon/lipsync-o52uj1pj7fa8z0vy

Process of Animation & Feedback:

On Friday 20th March – the last class of our Lip Sync Project: https://padlet.com/artslondon/lipsync-o52uj1pj7fa8z0vy

The version Titled ‘Work In Progress – Friday 20th March’ on my padlet – is how far I got for the final day of the project – I did complete cleanup for the second main scene (imbetweened and mouth shapes), however I didn’t have time to imbetween the first scene or add mouth shapes to scene 3 & 4.

Feedback I received on Friday 20th March:

  • My peers liked the design of my first main background
  • My peers said my imbetweens were very smooth
  • They liked the bending of my birds’ legs when they were moving
  • They liked the character design of my birds and thought they looked different alongside one another – which was good contrast

Some suggestions for further improvement:

  • They thought it would be nice if my background was given longer screen time
  • I could have considered follow through – for example making the curl of hair on my pigeon character move differently to the body moving
  • I could try to add more imbetweens when my male character drops down
  • I could try to add more easing at the end of when she turns to look at him (with the raised eyebrow)

Continuation of Animation:

With my remaining time after my second elective I started to continue working on my bird animation:

I began adding mouth shapes to my third scene, however ran into some difficulty as the audio was unclear in parts and fast – to tackle this I tried to incorporate some frames on 1s as they were too slow on 2s and didn’t match my audio very well.

When playing back my animation I realised a few issues that I wanted to address:

  • the beak of my crow character in the second scene was inconsistent – sometimes changing shape and size slightly
  • the body of my crow character in scene 2 also was quite inconsistent – making the volume feel off
  • the tail of my crow character in scene 2 was curved and then flat at different times – so I wanted to make this more consistent
  • some of my character settles could have been softer

Final Film:

My lineart animation can be found on my padlet titled ‘Lineart (Fully Imbetweened)’: https://padlet.com/artslondon/lipsync-o52uj1pj7fa8z0vy

My coloured animation can also be found titled ‘Final Colour’: https://padlet.com/artslondon/lipsync-o52uj1pj7fa8z0vy

My final film composited in After Effects: https://youtu.be/qk0FMKlW_EA

Week 3 – Lip Sync

Link to Padlet: https://padlet.com/artslondon/lipsync-o52uj1pj7fa8z0vy

Mouth Shapes:

Initial rough mouth shapes:

I sketched the above during class on Friday 27th March, my tutor suggested how I could tweak some of the mouth shapes to make them look more accurate which I applied to the final outcomes below. I also decided to draw my characters with teeth as this made it easier to distinguish their mouth sounds.

Female Pigeon character:

As well as the essential mouth shapes that we were tasked to complete, I decided to make an R and Uh mouth shape as my dialogue used these sounds a lot.

Male Crow Character:

X sheets:

Key:

Black: x sheet first draft

Red: side dialogue by Male Character (VA Harry)

Green: side dialogue by Female Character (VA Marianne)

Blue: edited x sheet sounds (after completing my mouth shape sheets and re-reading my x sheet I came to the realisation I would need to change some parts as often there was the same mouth shapes next to one another which wouldn’t contrast to show a new word being said).

Character Acting:

Task 1:

Through this task I realised the importance of character acting (to communicate and exaggerate emotions and dialogue); making characters feel lifelike and believable.

Notes:

  • Before doing imbetweens it would be useful to create timing charts between my keys (to help consider what spacing to do for my drawings)
  • when doing character acting an key poses try to think of think of live action and how an expression/emotion is acted, also consider what behaviours/actions match with your character and their personality ​
  • Think of the physics of action ​when doing key animation
  • Think of acting, are they immediately experiencing an emotional response e.g. do they immediately get angry or do they get angry slowly?
  • Work on 2s (24 FPS – but a frame holds for 2)
  • Use 1/3 sparingly for timing charts – it is easier to stick to halves

ToonBoom – Rough Keys

During the week commencing 2nd March I started doing my first draft of my rough keys (I brought this to class on Friday to continue working on before I received feedback on how to improve it (outlined in the slide below)).

The keys can be found on Padlet here (titled ‘Initial Rough Keys’) : https://padlet.com/artslondon/lipsync-o52uj1pj7fa8z0vy