November 17, 2023
Put into groups, we were assigned to make a portrait of a historical event or memory through the process of multimedia filmmaking. We were introduced to many types of stop-motion animation and were set off to come up with a concept and execute the film.
RESEARCH
Project Proposal
Our project proposal was meant to briefly outline our concept and approach to the film:
[Ink & Imagination] will be a short film that explores the childlike imagination we had as we dove into storybooks as kids. Focusing on childlike imagination, the film will include our group’s ideas on the origin of children’s book illustrations and the history of its evolution, using a mix of cutout animation, pixelation, and claymation, and subsequent contrasting visual elements that pay homage to different historical illustration styles.
My group, Marina, Andrew, and I, decided to go with the evolution of children’s storybook illustrations as they had impacted everyone in our group when we were younger.
PRE PRODUCTION
Stop Motion Animation Tests
Before starting the actual film, we tested out animation styles in our groups. Because our final film was going to include multiple different types of animation, this was crucial to our initial planning stage. Below is one of our stop motion animation tests that we decided on. We tested this out because we wanted to incorporate the same concept of opening a book in our final film (credit to Andrew).
Moodboard, Shot List, & Storyboard
We were also required to make a moodboard and storyboard to help move our process along and keep consistent with our ideas as we got into production. The storyboards were created both before and during the filming of the stop motion to keep us on track with original and updated ideas. The shot list was created before production started as we needed to organize the different acts in our film.
PRODUCTION & FINAL FILM
In order to start filming, we needed to make the props. I made the book out of air-dry clay, and Andrew made the Gnome out of a kneaded eraser. Using a stop-motion animation app, we filmed the beginning and end sequences. After that, all that was left was the 2D animation aspect, which Marina tackled using Procreate. As the editor, while Marina was working on the animation, I put the initial clips into Adobe Premiere Pro and started working on the transitions and audio.
With the animation complete, we realized that we needed to add a sequence in order to make the entire film a bit longer, so Andrew worked on the last drawn animation clip. Meanwhile, Marina found various audio tracks for sound effects and background music for the film. Marina and I also ended up creating our own audio for the opening of the book and the movement of the Gnome. Putting it all together was fun and a big learning experience, as I had to play around with fade and opacity, decibel settings, zoom and movement within the frame, and even color correcting. We also added some text to help the film along at the end of editing. Marina put together the end credits list which I copied into Premiere, I made the title card, and we were set! The short film, titled “Ink & Illustration: The History of Children’s Book Illustrations” was finalized, and we’re all very proud of it.
The animation came out better than expected, and the process was satisfying and engaging. Personally, I would like to play around with stop-animation more, but the thing that interested me the most was editing in Adobe Premiere Pro. I was able to learn a lot and I’m glad I was able to make the film look how we wanted it to look. Below is the link to the final short film.
/https://drive.google.com/file/d/17K3RRdS33qpxyKpBx75gfs_jVWlg0G09/view?usp=sharing