Screenshots of 8 bit racing video games

Need to decide on top view or behind view.

Ideas for animation

I have had a few ideas for this project. Some involve Pixilation while others have deviated slightly. The ideas ive had so dar are:

- Use the photos taken on thurs, somehow. maybe use the "zombie" set of photos and draw over the top using photoshop.

- Dancing shoes on the floor. Like, from the film, Bednobs and Broomsticks. Have someone walk in and take the shoes off then the shoes dance, walk about, move etc

- Reverse animation. ie take frames of fruit/food being gradually eaten then reverse the order so it looks like the food is growing.

- The main idea that I have is to do a stop motion animation in the style of the old 8-bit atari car racing games. so the car stays in the same place but the scenery and track move/change.

eg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2qSbyZ4_F0

I have a few example drawings in my notepad.

The car idea doesnt technically include pixilation so if I cant do that I will try the zombie idea however I hope the car idea is allowed as I am looking forward to it.

Bit of youtube research

Ive got a few youtube videos that I like for different reasons. A few I have found over the years and a few I have found while doing research recently.



Sur le fil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m0yeRstw-I



This is an amateur animation video made by two guys on an animation course. I like how its simple but has a story. It employs the same frame by frame drawing techniques that were used in the whiteboard animation.



Ham

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLY0MCi69go



This is an animation by one of my favourite digital artists, Nico Di Mattia. He normally produces online video/paintings called speed paintings (as you can see in the next video) however this is a back to basics animation about two pigs arguing over food. I like the simple design as if I am going to produce an animation I will produce a simple animation. The story is a bit strange and surreal but there is a bit of humour in it that makes it quite endearing.

Nico Di Mattia Speed Paintings

http://www.nicodimattia.com

Nico Di Mattia is an artist/animator from Argentina who mainly produces short films and animations but is more widely known for his speed paintings on youtube. I found his work on youtube a few years ago, I love the way his paintings are so realisic and that they are digital. He uses a graphics tablet to draw these paintings over a few hours. The videos of his work are then speeded up so the whole process only seems to take a few minutes.
One of my favourite paintings is his spiderman painting,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJNvKjQHv8I

And so it begins!

So I was ill during the 1st two introduction days hence I am only starting my blog now, a week after I should of done. oops. Anyway I am going to pretend it is a week ago and talk about intial impressions, how I think the course will develop, projects etc.

My initial impressions of university life are quite different from what I expected. After taking a art foundation course at Bucks New Uni last year I had this expectation that that it would be exactly the same at NTU, being in the studio 9-4, always having a project to work on, always being around and working with other people on my course. However, it seems that this is not how it works in Nottingham. 5 hours of teaching a WEEK! just told to go and get on with projects without any guidance and at the moment I hardly know anyone on my course. It does make me question what im paying my 3500 pounds for. I understand that this is not a school education or even a college education but 5 hours a week, just doesnt seem like enough to me. I may have to talk to a tutor at some point. Give it a few weeks see how the course develops then we'll see. Hopefully I will just get used to the change in pace.

The assignments. I have been given all my assignments for the next couple of weeks. The essay seems quite short but tricky at the same time. There could be a lot of research to do before writing this essay. Design techniques? I dont even know where to start. What the hell are design techniques?
The animation project seems much more exciting. I have got a few ideas on how to incorperate the sequences we took as a group and my own ideas aswell. I was thinking something along the lines of having a cross between hand drawn animation and the photos we took. Im not sure how feasable that is as i think it will take ages to hand draw lots of frames. Also swapping from hand drawn to photos, it may get out of sync. we'll wait and see if it works out.

Im going to do a bit of animation research and post my results on here later.

Adios