PPP: Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights

As a part of PPP we were required to attend a seminar in which we gained a better understanding of Copyright Law and it's role in producing animation. Copyright law is complicated, but is essential in protecting creator's Intellectual Property (IP). In the UK, Copyright is automatic and there is no registration system in place, meaning copyright can be transferred or sold. As copyright is automatic, usually, depending on the production, rights are assigned to the creator and their employer. For example...

• In a joint effort such as a film, the production company holds copyright. (Sometimes the Director)
• The Author of a book will often be assigned copyright of their works.
• The creator, publisher or broadcaster may be assigned copyright of a piece of musical score.

Copyright generally has a limited lifespan before works enter the public domain, after which they can often be adapted without having to pay royalties. Often music has a copyright span of 50 years, though this has changed in recent years as aging musicians such as Cliff Richard have disputed this in a bit to extend the law to 70 years.

Copyright law varies quite drastically internationally, for example some countries such as China have none and illegally resell western products using western trademarks under different names. Although assigning Copyright in the UK is automatic it is important when distributing work internationally, particularly over the internet to mark it  ©Your Name with the accompanying date it was published.

PPP: Photoshop Tutorials

Over the past few weeks I have been attending Photoshop inductions as a part of my Personal Professional Practice sessions in order to become better acquainted with the tools used for animation within Adobe CSS. 

We were introduced to video layers which allowed us to create animated layers within photoshop which can be edited and composited to create the illusion of motion through a process known as tweening. In order to create a tween, the following steps must be followed...

1) Open Photoshop and create a Video Timeline.

2) Convert Layer to a Smart Object.

3) Select the drop-down menu and press the stopwatch next to 'Transform' to create a keyframe.

4) Move the Smart Object to desired location and create another keyframe.

A tween creates the inbetween frames between two keyframes, creating a single smooth movement from point A to B. Tweening is ideal for simulating smooth camera movements such as pans and tilts. As a part of the induction we created a short animated gif using pre-made assets from the Banner Saga video game, the results of which I have posted below.

While I found the task informative and mostly successful, I feel I definitely still have room for improvement. For example, the foreground and background do not move consistently with the middle ground, which doesn't give the intended impression of a fluid camera movement. This is 

Surprisingly, Photoshop is an incredibly flexible program in terms of basic frame-by-frame animation. Over the course of our studio practice so far we have been learning about the basic principles of animation and putting them into practice, creating flip-books and short animations using animation paper. During PPP we have been given time to put these skills into practice creating frame-by-frame animations in Photoshop. After much consideration I can safely say I feel that my attempt at creating a frame-by-frame animation in Photoshop was much more successful than my attempt to create one using video layers. 

For this particular animated GIF I applied the principles or squash and stretch to create the fluid motion of a ball made of soft material bouncing off a wall and ceiling. While I am satisfied with the overall motion and implied weight of the motion, I feel I had some difficulty maintaining the volume, which is something I will seek to amend in the future. 

Overall I have found these sessions useful in expanding my knowledge of the tools used for animation and I look forward to applying the skills I have picked up on so far in future project work.

PPP: Using Twitter Effectively

This week during PPP I set up a Twitter account to act as a sort of news feed and window into the creative industries. I have had a Twitter account before, but mostly for personal use. The account I have set up as a part of PPP will be used primarily for networking with professionals, showcasing/promoting my own work and keeping up to date on the latest developments in Animation, Film and other forms of digital media.

I've tried to follow a wide range of creators on my Twitter profile from a variety of different fields, including…

@briankesinger: Brian Kesinger, Storyboard Artist for Walt Disney Animation Studios

@RealGDT: Guillermo Del Toro, Director of Pans Labyrinth and Pacific Rim

@sirjoancornella: Joan Cornella, Illustrator, Comic Artist

@DAVID_FIRTH: Internet Animator, Musician, Creator of Salad Fingers

PPP Session: Effective Presentation Techniques

In today's PPP session we reflected upon what makes a good presentation and how to effectively present work to a group of our peers.

Presentations are the communication of ideas and concepts and a great opportunity to receive constructive feedback from tutors and peers in order to better and expand our work. The aim of a presentation is to convey the meaningful information as clearly and concisely as possible, which can be achieved through careful planning and execution. Know yours subject and be prepared but also keep it simple and don't over rely on text to communicate your message across. Text should be large enough to be readable from a distance, especially if you are delivering a presentation to a large room of people.

Tailor your presentation to the audience you are presenting to, but also assume the audience knows nothing ahead of time. Inform and explain your subject to your audience as concisely and to-the-point as possible in order to effectively illustrate your point. 0It is also very important, in group work especially, to clearly explain and demonstrate the role you played in a project, no matter how minor or major it may be.

Each slide should be important and move the presentation forward, but slides are no replacement for your own presence. Be enthusiastic, own your presentation but also be yourself. Try not to come across as irritable or stressed as this will detract from your presentation.

In summary:

• Know your subject, be prepared.
• Keep it simple.
• Don't use too much text.
• Each slide should be important, but slides are no replacement for you.
• Be enthusiastic and be yourself.
• Avoid using bullet points.

PPP Task: Who are you?

Why you chose to study on this programme?

The tutors on my Foundation Art and Design course at Newcastle College were the ones who told me about the courses offered by Leeds College of Art. Upon further investigation I was impressed by the standard of work being produced by students on the programme and was immediately drawn to the animation course. At my interview I was very impressed with the college's wide range of digital, print and studio facilities, which I felt suited my 2D sensibilities while also granting me the resources to broaden my horizons into other forms of media such as 3D computer animation. The interviewers also seemed interested in what I had to say and what my interests were.

What do you want to learn during your time here?

What I want from this course is to refine my technical skills while also gaining a greater understanding of the industry and of the potential job roles within it. Over the course of the three years I want to be able to experiment with new forms of media in order to develop my own unique visual style, allowing my portfolio to stand out from the crowd.

What skills do you think are your strengths?

Coming from a Media Studies/English Language background I like to think I already have a fairly decent understanding of the language of film, in terms of how directors communicated certain messages through their direction, skills which should benefit me greatly in a field such as Animation, which relies almost entirely on visual language to communicate. Another strength in my work I feel is my illustrative style, more specifically the linework, which I feel is simple enough to be adapted to animation while also retaining a certain level of detail.

What things do you want to improve?

Figure drawing is not my strongest suit, so I need to attend a few life drawing sessions in order to gain a greater understanding of how to plan out the human anatomy for when designing my characters. I want to be able to create more expressive characters with distinct personalities as I feel most of my characters end up looking the same. Colour is also another area in which I feel I have room to improve, as my lack of experience and knowledge of colour theory often leads me to resort to using tonal greys to colour my illustrations.

What ways will you evaluate your progress?

Over the course of the year I will be garnering feedback from my tutors and peers while documenting it on my blog. This should allow me to identify in what aspects of my work I am succeeding and where I have room to improve. Of course at the end of each module I will be writing an evaluation of my work anyway, but by evaluating my work earlier during the development process it will allow me amend problems identified in my work by my peers in the earlier stages.