"Animotion Exhibition" Evaluation

“Animotion” Exhibition

On Wednesday 3^rd Of February we visited the “Animotion Exhibition” at the Civic Centre in Barnsley. The exhibition features several individual techniques based around animation. The pieces at the gallery were interactive and present old and modern animation techniques from Zoetrope’s to CGI. Also, the gallery featured elements from famous animation companies such as “Aardman Animations” and iconic characters such as “Morph”. The exhibition allowed us to enter the world of animation by exploring the animators behind the gallery pieces and creating our own individual animations. This unique exhibition presented works from the UKs most creative artists and animators. The “Animotion Exhibition” is the second exhibition in a two-part project which has been funded for the Arts Council. Whilst visiting the animation exhibition, I collected recorded information about the pieces and interacted with them to evaluate old and modern animation techniques.

"An exhibition exploring animation". 

Entrance to the exhibition.







Calavera 

"Calavera is a representation of a human skull usually made from clay or sugar to celebrate the tradition of Mexican Day Of The Dead. The piece was created by Spacecadats Air Design and uses the animation software "Raspberry Pi" to create the patterns within the skulls eyes.







Where Will The Selfies Take Us?

“Where Will The Selfies Take Us?” is a stop-motion animation piece created by Eleanor Meredith, The Workers and BAT Studio. The piece uses two Raspberry Pi computers which includes a software called “Frameworks”. The stop-motion animation technique allows visitors to interact with the exhibit and create a short animation piece. It will combine a wide variety of visitors who may never have met in real life. Finally the piece combines both illustration with humans that engage with the work.

Then the images are placed onto the screen
and a new animation is added to the stop-
motion animation piece.

You take lots of photos with the "selfie stick".



 









The Nature Of Imagination

“The Nature Of Imagination” is a piece of artwork created by David Urwin, that aims to explore the way that we can never truly see the world the way the other person does. Also the piece aims to explore how we rarely stop to think about what is happening in a persons mind that leads them to act the way they do. The piece works by showing a 3D world through Oculus Rift headset and capturing the movements of a visitor with a “Microsoft Kinect”. Both of these elements combined creates an animated world and skeleton.

The movement from the visitor is transferred
into an animation.

Wing/Face Impossible Arts

“Wing/Face” is a generative animation that controls speed, movement and reactions of the independent animations which never repeat and are freshly created. A camera is used to capture a sequence of images of a visitor’s face who place themselves in a photo-booth. Then a face recognition software detects the features of a visitors face so that they can be placed onto the animation. The visitors face will be placed onto an animation to present a virtual experience.

SYNCHRONIcITY



“SYNCHRONIcITY” is stop motion animation, projection piece that explores imagination and interaction in a playful way. Different colours and symbols are presented across the piece through projection and stop motion animation. Hand movement is detected on a camera across the paper structure and different colours and shapes are revealed onto the piece. The work engages the visitor and allows them to explore imaginatively.

When the hand hovers over the structure,
colours and shapes appear through animation. 





The Slow Zeotrope

“The Slow Zeotrope” is a stop motion and zoetrope animation piece which is very unique. A wheel moves at slow intervals and it is captured by a time-lapse camera which makes a family look like they are walking past a landscape that grows, blooms and flourish. The zoetrope was designed by Aardman Animation studios and it moves around every 5 minutes. Then a computer takes an image throughout the day and this is combined to create a stop motion animation film. The characters are created from 3D scans in a software which took 7 hours to make. All of the characters are individually captured and placed together as a film of single frames. By placing them together in a single frame, it creates an illusion of movement. The piece was created by Mark Simon Hewis and Aardman animation.

The landscape scene for the "Slow Zeotrope".

 

Morph Set And Zeotrope

The “Morph Set” is an animation display, which presents the famous clay character “Morph” from Aardman Animation Studios. The character is from a stop-motion animated children’s TV program which made its debut in 1977. The episodes were shot using clay and traditional stop-frame animation.

Morph Set

The “Animotion Exhibition” allowed visitors to create short animation films and Zoetrope’s based around Aardman Animation. To create a zoetrope, we traced a scene of the character “Morph” who was doing a cartwheel. The drawings were split into different sections which will be combined and joined together inside the zoetrope to create a moving picture.

The final Zeotrope scene outcome.

"Morph Zeotrope" scene outline

 

Also, the “Animotion Exhibition” allowed visitors to create short, stop-motion animation scenes by choosing characters and taking lots of photos to create a film. To create a stop-motion animation piece, the characters had to be positioned carefully and be moved slightly at each photograph to make them look like they are moving once the photographs are placed together to create a short movie. The task allowed visitors to learn about how stop-motion animation films are made and how famous companies such as “Aardman Animation” create movies and TV programs.

Stop Motion Animation Scene.

 

Overall the visit to the “Animotion Workshop” was interesting as it allowed me to explore different animation techniques and the processes behind each individual pieces in the exhibition. It allowed me to explore both old and new animation techniques and interact with them as a visitor. I enjoyed how we could create our own Zeotrope and stop-motion animation scenes in the exhibition and test them out through old and modern methods. By exploring the exhibition, it allowed me to start to analyse and research a time-based problem in Art & Design for the Unit 7 “Time Based Media “project brief. I will take the knowledge and techniques I have learnt from the artists and pieces in the exhibition forward into my project.