Initial idea

I quite like the idea of the origami crane taking to life and taking flight. This is a direct reference to the Japanese legend. My idea will probably be done on paper and animated on paper since I'm not very keen on 3D work. Possibly transform the origami crane into an actual crane as it takes flight. It'll be drawn in a Japanese style so I'll have to look into Japanese Paintings mainly the Sumi-e style which is ink and water brushwork.

My Object - The Origami Crane

This is my chosen object. Well.. one of them. I keep making new ones since I keep crushing or losing them.

Origami cranes

A model of a crane created by the art of Japanese paper folding. The practice originated from Japan around 1680. There was a legend surrounding origami. They say that the creator origami folded a paper dove, it took flight as it was so realistic.

The crane is a symbol of long life and health. A legend says that if one was to fold 1000 cranes, your wish shall be granted. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, one girl, affected by leukaemia as a result from radiation, who tried to stave off her death by folding 1000 cranes. Sadly she died after folding 644 so her friends completed 1000 and placed them on her grave. This story has been immortalised in popular culture and every 6th of August, the Japanese celebrate Annual Peace day by folding 1000 cranes and draping them on her statue on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Random research videos

Apart from being a gaming fan, I like this animation due to the simplicity of it. By using several paper cut out versions of Super Mario, the character is brought to like by creating the illusion of movement.

The use of printed tshirts is pretty original. Having different tshirts for different actions changes things appropriately.

Although not stop motion, this animation from Kill Bill is one of my favourites all time in that it is stylish. It's considered a Japanese styled anime but it's not typical of the popular style. It's gritty, dark and and well done which fits in with the rest of the film and it's quite typical of Quentin Tarantino.

Final Cut

After trouble over using Final Cut, I've finally added sound to my short animation. I may have screwed up the screen ratio a little as I got confused with the settings. However, I'm rather happy with the outcome. My next step would be to continue with research and to come up with ideas for my next project.

Purple and Brown

I recall seeing this animation when I was little. It was created by Aardman Studios, the same company that gave us Wallace and Gromit, Morph and Creature Comforts. They use Claymotion software to animate. The technique they use is stop motion. I really like how simple characters can be so funny. It's simplicity. Again, it would be unlikely I'd use this technique as I favour a more literally drawn approach.

Self Folding Crane

My final experimental animation. Just keeping with the paper crane idea, I decided to make this next video a self folding piece showing the process of origami. I think it went rather well despite the lack of light. To improve this, I would slow down the crane's escape at the end as it seems rushed.

Second Animation

My second animation! Still unfinished. It's an origami crane taking life and flying around before it transforms into a seahorse. I think I recorded the movement of the crane well but the transformation is where it falls. I'll need to improve on the transformation sequence by adding a lot more frames between the existing ones so it'll run more smoothly.

Progressing with South Bank Pigeon

I hav added a few more frames to this animation. This is so that the pigeon flies away from the window. My next step is to continue this animation till finish. I've added all the frames I needed so all I have to do is to draw out the rest of the buildings in the latter frames and inking them in. For some reason, I've accidentally added an extra frame of the table at the end. This won't happen in the finished version.

First Animation ever!

It's my first ever animation. (Sort of. My very first one involved a pencil and Windows Movie Maker. Now long gone.) Anyway, we went to the South Bank, London and sketched some views. Little did we know, we'd have to make it into an animation later.

I decided to reference from a sketch of a pigeon and a badly drawn building. But they married together pretty well. This is still a work in progress so I'll need to outline a bit more, add more frames so it'll run more smoothly and maybe continue it. I'd quite like the bird to fly away. So keep watching this space!

A New Beginning

Hello! Amy Lee here and just recently started on the Illustration course at the University of Westminster. I've written blogs before but they are completely random not really relavent to this course.
Anyway, about me? I'm a British born Chinese. I consider myself British with an Asian background. It's really useful to have each hand in both cultures, I can speak Cantonese and Hakka Chinese. However, I can't actually read or write in Chinese (Hence why I've failed my Chinese A-levels.Oh, the irony!) I enjoy reading classics. Favourite books include Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov and Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. I love video games (often finding myself playing Minecraft until the early hours.) I'm interested in fantasy themes but more so of the old sciences such as Alchemy. One source of inspiration is Ripley's Scroll by George Ripley, a 15th century Alchemist. It's a running theme in many of my works.
I've chosen animation as it's quite new to me and I'm interested in the processes. I would quite literally like to bring my drawing to life just to see what happens.

One particular animation film that really appealed to me is Darkness/Light/Darkness by Jan Svankmejer. Although personally I wouldn't work with the technique as I favour drawing, I was captured by the gritty, powerful and dark content. I love the surrealist notion of the video. The man who worked to become someone finds himself trapped in the end, quite literally.

Whilst At the Tate Modern, I found the "8th Paper Octagonal" By Richard Tuttle. It intrigued me as to me, it was barely there. Almost a painting, almost an installation. Like Schrodinger's cat, it seemed there but notthere. It was irregular, completely flat. I wondered whether it was part of a wall or an object of it's own attatched to a wall. "As an object that is untra thin. Takes place between painting and sculpture."

To take to a desert island? Um.. To be practical, I'd take a machete. Sharpened to perfection. And I'd take Ray Mear's Survival Guide. I've read it though and I find it an interesting read and rather useful too. That leaves three more items for fun.
1. Machete - Obvious choice.
2. Ray Mear's Survival Guide - for guidence.
3. Another machete - just in case I misplaced my first one.
4. A plane wreckage - to salvage things (Does that count?)
5. A stranger (I hope it's a nice person.)