Animation Challenges

Folktale Week, animation challenges, vintage tracing paper, and making Kim Chi.

This month I've been busy catching up on my (what started out as) 'weekly animations'. At the start of 2024 I invited friends and family to give me prompts to inspire short animations, with the mad idea I would do one a week!! The plan was to explore new techniques, work loose and fast, and to build up some fresh work. So far I've made 18 animations (not weekly, but tbh I’m just happy I’ve kept going all year) using a BIG range of techniques! You can watch some of them here:

The word animation stems from Latin and means 'bestowing of life'. But sometimes animation can be a challenge... the effort and technology involved in making things move sometimes (ironically) sucks the life out of the thing you are trying to imbue WITH life! The energy of the line, the essence of the emotion, or the weight of the body can be lost if you’re not careful - having to draw the thing over and over and over and over (usually 12 drawings per second of animation) can potentially get in the way of your original fresh, dynamic creation.

The trick is to keep the final animation as full of life as the sketches and line tests which led up to it! 'Less is more' is the mantra to remind me to leave things out, pare things down, and keep it as close to the original drawing as I can.

That was one of the reasons I did this series of weekly animations. I wanted to create sequences that were still full of life, weren't overworked, had held my full attention for every second I was working on them, and hopefully left the viewer (and animator!?) wanting more.

So here are the 2 animations I’ve done this month... the prompts were LONELINESS and LEGEND.

For 'Loneliness' I worked on some lovely old waxy tracing paper (I LOVE nice papers, old or new - my daughters will testify that I get very excited in a stationery shop). It's some kind of vintage fullscap format, each sheet rips beautifully into 6 almost-perfect squares. I worked on a light box tracing from sketchbook drawings for a book/film idea I'm developing at the moment. I used some black paint and a fineliner, leaving half the marks out and trying to keep the brushmarks consistent in weight and direction. I did 4 of each drawing, to create loops. I knew I didn't want lots of movement in this one, intead focussing on the mood and expression. I'm really happy with how it worked out, and I think I COULD animate these wee people and happily still keep the look and feel.

One of the Folktale Week setups, with lightbox off/on

For 'Legend' I tied in with Folktale Week, an online illustration challenge every November @folktaleweek. They give 7 prompts, one for each day of the week. This year's prompts were: MIST; GATE; BLIGHT; TRAIL; DEPTH; BONE; BLOSSOM. I chose a local legend about two giants who work as cobblers mending other giants' shoes. They sit on the rocky headlands on either side of the Cromarty Firth which are named 'The Sutors' (old Scots for a cobbler's stool). As they only have one set of tools between them, they must throw the tools across the 2 mile watery gateway. From when I was wee I've known this Black Isle landscape and its many legends and have imagined the giants roaming about, taking ginormous strides across the land, both terrifying and awe-inspiring at the same time. Here is my series of animations using Folktale Week’s 7 prompts:

This series was WAY longer than any of the other 'weekly animations’ I’ve done this year and I wasn’t sure I’d manage to complete it, but I felt really inspired by Folktale Week so I went for it. I kept it simple, continued the tracing paper technique from the 'Loneliness' sequence, but incorporated other bits and bobs... some coloured waxy paper, an old lacy paper chain to cut fragments from, and also added some paint and drawn marks. But the main effect I wanted was to layer the tracing paper and create tones and depth on the light box. Perhaps because I had so little of the lovely tracing paper left (I have only half a sheet left now) I cut the pieces ridiculously small. I could not sneeze or sigh in the direction of the lightbox, or the sea/trees/hats would simply blow away! It's ironic how I made artwork of HUGE things with TEENY WEENY bits of paper! The desk looked like a mouse wedding had taken place, tiny confetti everywhere. I felt like a giant myself. Here is my desk, some rough sketches and the Hugh Miller book where the giant story can be found.

Tech stuff: I worked on a lightbox with my phone on a gooseneck stand and used Stop Motion Studio app. A glass square from a small picture frame hinged with tape on the lightbox meant I could place some elements under glass and some above. I used a smidge of TVPaint for the first prompt 'MIST' to make the mist stronger (it didn't show up enough on the tracing paper) and to change the giants' position a bit. But I decided after that first day I wanted to do all future days on the lightbox and keep it as simple as possible. I edited on Clip Champ using free sound effects from BBC or Pixabay. All in all, a cheap and cheerful production!

I'm so happy I found time to make this series (is it a film?) around other work and family life going on this month. These online challenges are SO rewarding - I love seeing what everyone else has done, and discovering new artists/animators along the way. I feel inspired - there are more techniques to try and stories to tell.

What else have I been up to this month?

I did an animation talk and workshop at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, as part of the GFT / BFI Film Academy programme of events. The students were so creative and focussed!

I made Kim Chi with a big cabbage from my allotment. It’s very tasty.

I had lots of lovely walks with Archie on some gorgeous sunny November days.

I hope you've all had a happy, creative month too!