Hannah Roza Fisher

This is a daunting thing. I feel like I should already have a handle of what kind of future I have in animation but I very much feel like I’m still finding my place. I wouldn’t say at the moment that I would confidently be able to describe what parts of the animation industry I am especially good at or enjoy, considering that I haven’t had a go at most of them yet. I’m hoping the LIAF project will greatly inform this and allow me to have a go at trying different skills and areas of work.

This does mean however that if I intend to get an internship in the summer, something I am not sure yet if I’ll be able to manage, i’ll really have to consider what it is at the moment I would be most interested in pursuing. Currently the things i’ve enjoyed the most are animation itself, figuring out how to create and evoke a performance, and Character Design but its hardly to say that is what I want to do with certainty having never even approached things like clean up, colour or background. I think before I consider applying for internships i’ll first need to create a show reel, something I’m not even close to having at the moment and really consider what skills I want to develop right now. I don’t think I really have a neat answer for this right now, but hopefully will have a clearer idea next term.

The things I really want to work on next term are all the additional things needed to make a fully realised film as that at the moment feels really unobtainable. I’m looking forward to the LIAF project as I think this will be the perfect opportunity to have a go at different things. I would be interested both in being an AD and in working on someone else’s project at the moment because whilst I do have ideas that I’m excited about making, I am equally as excited about being a part of someone else’s creative vision and having the opportunity to work in different departments.

One thing I am sure about is the kind of work I am excited to pursue. Whilst I love the more experimental side of animation and the beauty and elegance of short films, my heart is really set on short form television animation. I think for me this is about the amount of time you are able to spend in a world and with your characters. Things like The Owl House, Hilda, Steven Universe, Amphibia and She Ra, rich magical worlds that we can sit in an explore alongside rich character development, but also allows space and time for soft world building. I think I find animation most satisfying and affecting when you get to explore smaller stories, almost less dramatic and consequential ones, that allow for the character growth and moral lessons that form the real purpose of the story. This is of course not to say that films and shorts don’t do the same thing, but for me I get the most out of the television format and I would be most excited to be a part of that world.

The other thing I am certain is wanting to create work that comes from both a female and queer lens. I want the work I create to be inclusive, but more than that I want it to be made for and by communities that don’t see them selves represented as often. I want to make animation for disabled people, people of colour, deaf people, queer people, women, non binary people, trans people. I want to use this art form that has so much scope and possibility to create work that people see themselves reflected in but don’t focus on trauma. I want to create stories that have these types of characters in just because that is how the world looks, I want them to be a part of stories that are magical and adventurous just because they can! Why can’t a sword wielding hero be trans and be as exciting and accessible as any other fantasy hero? Why can’t there be more deaf characters that use sign language? Most importantly I want these characters to be the protagonists and not just story beat or narrative devices there to teach “normal” characters a lesson.

Whilst I currently no clue what my final film will look like, I do know that I want it to be reflective and representative but also fun and exciting. I want marginalised people to watch it and feel seen, I want families and children to watch it and understand that being queer or trans or disabled or whatever isn’t just okay but completely normal and worthy. I want the underrepresented to see that they have value and if i can be a small part of that, then I would be incredibly grateful.

Coming into the course, I was quite nervous about both the level of skill required and the learning curve that may come with a masters degree rather than a bachelors. I had only started drawing in 2020 and had never animated before, so coming in cold was quite a daunting.

Initially I found the first few weeks quite difficult because as I have learnt over the past two terms, you can’t exactly teach animation but can only pass on techniques and concepts. Looking back now those base concepts come a little more naturally but it really was quite a task to grasp them early on whilst simultaneously outputting work. I think the last few weeks before Christmas and this most recent term is when I really started to notice an improvement in my understanding of animation and in the work I was creating. Although I did struggle in the first few weeks after the Christmas break which really hammered home how important it is to keep on top of your craft.

I think my theatre background has really influenced and supported my processes. There are obvious examples such as the acting exercises and my understanding of movement, but I also think it will help toward my overall understanding of pacing and story and what makes something entertaining. The other side of this, however, is I must be careful not to assume I already know something, as often the applications of these ideas are very different in animation than in live theatre and Its very easy to rest on my laurels whilst simultaneously getting in the way of my own progress. I must remember to be humble in my own knowledge and inexperience.

The areas I feel I have grown the most in are essentially the basic animation principles, that is understanding the building blocks of how to create a successful piece. It was only once I was able to get a handle on this that I was able to even begin thinking about performance. Something I think I need to work on more is timing in the movement, I have a tendency to evenly space my drawings and this doesn’t create the most dynamic animation. I think will come with practice though and as long as I keep trying and experimenting, my work will naturally progress and improve and I will become more confident in my motion. I also need to spend time working on my base drawing skills and make sure I don’t let those slide, especially in terms of proportion and perspective. I would like to spend some timing working on clean up and incorporation of character design into animations as this is something I haven’t been able to do successfully yet.

Something else I would like to investigate further is stop motion. Whilst I don’t necessarily see myself creating my final film in Stop Motion, I am very interested in exploring the techniques involved and really want to use it to inform my practise. I am really glad I took the pathway and thoroughly enjoyed the creation workshops for each medium. I do think I need to spend sometime perfecting and experimenting with both shooting and editing a film, but hope to do this alongside my studies if i’m able to find the time. I would like to try working collaboratively with other people as I think that this would really benefit the stop motion process for me. This was really evident in our final class when we looked at Pixelation, we were really able to spread our skill set across the different parts of the film and not having to worry about set or lighting or any sort of physical making meant that we could really enjoy the process. I’d love to be able to apply these approaches to other forms of stop motion.

We had various classes over the course of the past two terms that covered a scope of practical skills as well as animation, film and art theory. These classes were incredibly useful overall for helping to widen my understanding of both the processes of animation but also the industry as a whole.

Having not come from an animation, but a theatre background, having the dichotomy between the animation classes, something wildly new and unfamiliar to me, and the acting classes, which had been the basic format of all of my previous education and career was very interesting.

It was especially interesting coming into acting and performance classes but having to frame it with a new lens. I had done most of the exercises before but solely from the perspective of creating live performance for stage and so to take skills I already had studied but apply them in a different way for a different end result was an enjoyable challenge. I do think my theatre background and familiarity with a rehearsal room environment and willingness to make a fool of myself did help in these classes. My understanding of body performance and how to communicate using my body did also help to grasp the concepts of body performance in animation quite quickly, however I have found there is a huge difference in understanding the concepts and being able to apply it to your own body and then being able to translate that onto to paper.

All of the classes were invaluable and it would be really difficult to choose which i enjoyed the most. Classes with external speakers such as Robert Bradbrook and Sue Tong were really fascinating to learn about the world of animation outside of the context of the course, the skills classes such as Clean up with Duane and Saffron and Story boarding with Bianca were great for helping me develop my own tool kit and understanding what skills I needed to hone or perfect in order to be able to work professionally and the theoretical classes with Laura-Beth were wonderful for understanding the greater landscape in the animation industry.

As some one who works best with in person practice based classes, these have been really enriching classes that have helped me to understand my own burgeoning practice in a safe environment that really promotes self improvement and critical approaches to my work.

Initially for this exercise I created live action references for all three versions.

Based on these three videos I then had a go at creating some thumbnails and rough drafts for both the Lift and Push.

Based on these, I felt like I had the most ideas and material to create the bets Push sequence. I started by filming additional references to help suppliment the movement and then began working on break downs and in-betweens.

My first draft of the push felt very inconsistent in terms of foot placement and size of the character. The character would slide along the floor and would switch feet in moments where it wouldn’t be possible.

Instead of trying to fix the animation I decided it would be best to work from the same idea but restart the sequence with fresh drawings. This time I made sure to differentiate the right and left arms and legs and pay particular attention to the centre of gravity and where the weight of the body was being held. Version 2, as seen below, is the version I submitted for the formative assessment in December.

Finally after the Christmas break I came back to the Push to further in-between the shot, add effort and further elements of performance and detail. I’m really glad I came back to this piece because I found it relatively easy and quick to really heighten the quality of the performance using the skills I was developing in the acting exercises. I really tried to emphasis the use of performative details to enhance the work I was producing.

This was great lesson in both persistence and distance. Allowing myself time away from the exercise to focus on contributory skills allowed me to come back to it with fresh eyes and a confidence that I didn’t have when first approaching the task.

The follow through exercise was one of the earliest animations we did within class, proceeded only by the bouncing ball. I initially used CC Animate to create this exercise as TV Paint wasn’t available and I wanted to see if I was able to use another digital program. I found Animate quite difficult to use and initially struggled with figuring out the program. Once I had gotten into a bit of a groove with Animate, I decided initially to copy my bouncing ball frames as a base and then work on the follow through elements separately to create the following.

Although I wasn’t happy with the outcome, I had eventually to move on to other exercises. I came back to follow through briefly in December before the formative assessment and tried to neaten up the impact point at the bottom of the bounce, however by this time I was unfamiliar again with Animate and found it difficult to work effectively.

After the formative assessment I received some useful feedback and decided to restart the follow through exercise, this time working on TV Paint. I started by creating a really rough sketch of a more complex character, working on a single layer, just to estimate movement and get an idea of design.

I then reworked this in separate layers for the head, body, whiskers and ears. I made this a conscious decision based on the difficulties I had in timing the movement all together when working on the initial version. I also started the sequence in mid-dair rather than on the ground, as I found it very difficult to match up the movement at the the point of impact as the movements are smaller and subtler that the point of suspension. I found this far easier and more successful as an approach.

After showing this to Christina, she was able to give me some really useful advice on the follow through for the ears, she explained how they would react to the up/down draft of the wind in movement as was able to help me think about the weight of the ears in more natural way. This allowed me to rework the ears so they moved as a result of the body, rather than looking like a flapping motion.

I was also encouraged by Shaun and Emma to think about the environment and horizon line in the animation. Up until this point, I had only ever thought of the floor as a tool for finding a landing position or creating and consistent point of contact for feet. Adjusting the line so that it didn’t intersect with the character but still gave the impression of ground was a very simple change but worked really effectively. I also added in some dirt spray effect for the feet and ears to create an impression of ground movement which helped to sell the impact of the character.

This has been my favourite exercise by far. As soon as I had settled on my video I had a very complete image of what I wanted the animation to look like.

I started by plotting out my thumbnails and when action would happen against the timing of the audio. Based on how I worked on the other lip-sync I drew out and experimented with different mouth options, making a particular choice to only create shapes that were needed and not over complicate the lip-sync. I tried to keep aware of similar sounding/shaped syllables that could reuse existing mouth shapes and how I could make small adjustments that kept the lip-sync fluid and wouldn’t overcrowd it. I also trialed some different design options before settling on a classic cartoon ‘bean’ mouth.

The next step was to roughly timeout the thumbnails and create a lip sync test (below). I found this a much quicker process compared to my first lip-sync exercise and I think using restraint in terms of the mouth shape was a big contributor to this.

After this I worked on fleshing out the movement and adding the mouth shape to the design. I found this far easier that the first lip-sync, partially down to having it done it once already but also due to this being a simpler and more stylised design with less complex movement in the head and face.

My first pass of the full animation came out relatively well. The main feedback was that there was too much stillness in the body in the beginning and end compared to when she pulls down on her face.

Christina suggested initially, to readjust the timing of the audio in comparison to the movement so that the final line “I love halloween” would happen earlier, allowing for a more dynamic performance. I then reworked the body and facial expressions during “look it, look it” to make more extreme poses, added more performance into her hair and a final image that punctuated the ending.

This time I absolutely and resolutely started with thumbnails. I refused to allow myself to do anything else first. After receiving the exercise and working with Ying to create a reference video, I sat down and really plotted out the entire animation.

Starting with the body acting, I plotted out the key frames and facial expressions that would work separately from the lip-sync. I think, working directly with Ying, wrote out the script phonetically and planned out the mouth shapes for each sound.

I started out by creating the body movement with some simple break downs and in-betweens to create a rough version of the sequence. I used the sound file to create the timing of the movement, working with the thumbnails as a reference.

From this I then worked on the Lip Sync separately, creating a mouth shape separate from any body or movement. I used the original mouth shape design sheet I had worked on with Ying and used directly mouth shapes from the reference video.

I then used this as a reference guide to create my first pass at a full lip sync animation

This, absolutely did not work.

It was a bit of a hard lesson but it was clearly very early that this was not a good animation. The concept was there but the lip sync was too complicated and the movement was stuttering and unnatural. I decided, based on my previous experiences with the Body Acting to start the lip-sync again. I initially kept the body movement and first just worked on reworking the mouth shapes and position to create a simpler and more effective lip sync. Looking at the two side by side, it is clear to see the efficacy of the updated version in comparison to the first.

I initially kept the movement from the original animation, but reworked the timing and added further inbetweens and breakdowns in order to create more natural and readable movement.

However this ‘fix’ then highlighted the problems with the mouth itself, making the rest of the movement work only made the mouth positioning and shape seem incorrect. The inconsistency of the placement on the head was highlighted and the face appeared to ‘slip around’ during the movement. Working from helpful feedback I decided to redo the head of the animation, creating a guide drawing to help with head shape and mouth position. This small addition make a world of difference and made the piece far more successful.