Final outcome

After making the main animation the last little bit was to add the title and then the ending sequence.



Music was also added, that I found from freesound.org, it is a peice of circus music that had a very eerie and dampened sound to it, so it fitted perfectly with my animation.

Making the animation 2

The main compositon.



To create the money falling from the sky I made a precompositon of one soild object and moved and roated it around a 3d axis to create a sense of falling.



I then copied this composition several times to get the look that lots of money was falling from the sky.

Background Components

While the main characters I made into shadow puppets were created by hand drawning onto black card which I then cut out, I created some background fillers on illustator and photoshop.

I created this to try and add to the bizzare and maddness of the chapter and to give my animation a sense of depth.

Making the animation

I started animating the puppets in After Effects and toyed with the lighting to make
it more atmospheric.

Animation

I thought for a while about how I could possibly animate it. It boiled down to two options: I could create a shadow puppet set and characters and animate by using either video or stop frame animation, or I could use animation software, which would make it a digital animation.

At first I greatly considered using video and stop-frame techniques to give a more natural sense to it, (after all the old shadow puppetry was done via these methods.) However as time wore on I realised I wouldn't have time to animate this way and I couldn't guarantee that I could get a good quality out of it.

I still decided that I would draw and cut out the shadow puppets by hand so that I could get a natural, free-hand drawing into the animation

Making the shadow puppets

I started to work out which characters in the chapter I would need for my animation. I then began drawing some concepts and how they would translate into shadow puppets and began to draw and cut them out, I tested them against actual light to make sure they looked how I needed them to.





I took this photo after I shone a light on the shadow puppet and photographed the shadow it made.

Shadow Puppets

I was very much inspired by the book and it's themes to create a shadow puppet animation. I thought that the shilouhette images on black and white would make for a beautiful and haunting peice.

I did some research into shadow puppetry and found some interesting concepts.

Storyboarding

After reading through the chapter, I highlighted what I considered the key points and ideas of the scene and began drawing up a quick storyboard of how I would portray this.

Book Project

During the reading week we were given a selection of books and texts to read and interpret as part of our course.

I chose the book The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which is based upon the story of the Devil's visit to Russia and all who meet him end up insane or dead. I specifically chose to look at the chapter "Black Magic Revealed" in which the devil (who is disguised as a theatrical artist), puts on a performance at the Moscow theatre with help of his cohorts.
I was interested by this part of the book as it invoked a lot of imagary for me, particulary as the devil comes across as almost upset that the citzens of moscow are so corrupt, rather than pleased.

("they love money but that has always been so, sometimes, mercy knocks at their hearts.")

This Blog

I have created this blog with the purpose of displaying my work-in-progress for the projects I have been working on for my assessment at Bath Spa University. I will be uploading and linking all my development work and some of the resarch that has infulenced my decisions on my own work.