Jun 28, 2013

Unit 1 - Arts Awards Silver - Rodney Peppe Automation and Animation

Unit 1 - Arts Awards Silver - Rodney Peppe Automation and Animation



What did I attend: 
-------------------------

Rodney Peppé Art exhibition


Where did I attend it :
-----------------------------
 
 at the Ruthin Art center , Wales



My Learning Log :
-----------------------



On my second visit to the Art Exhibition I was trying to focus on looking on the various animated exhibits.




Here an Automaton animating the 12 days of Christmas
Rodney Peppe wanted to try and using a different kind of animated mechanism to 
create different movements for each design 
the little handles on the side turn the automaton



a close up   




This made me laugh , a moving singing teeth automaton


there were great views of all the different mechanisms with explanations 
on how they work 


  

 it was interesting to be able to see at it from the back 


  

 these are some of Rodney Peppe's Jumping Jacks which made me think 
how simple animated movements can be

in a workshop kids were encouraged to create their own paper collaged versions 
of Rodney Peppe's animated Jumping Jacks







An automiton crocodile I really liked, his name i remember was Snapper. He was one of my favourite things in the exhibition. his actual movement was his mouth, it opened and closed really quickly over and over again making a snapping noise, hence the name. He also had that little bird on his back that might have represented a type of bird that eats the parasites off of large animals hides. The one thing i didn't like about him was the fact that his top jaw was bigger than his bottom jaw. Though a lot of people make the jaw like that i personally don't like it, but it doesn't stop me loving this little guy! I even made a few sketches of him!
Here i made some sketches of Snapper, as you can see its not quite the same, hes a lot more elegant and slender. In this case i really like the way the thin-ness looks, and the spikes on his head add for me to the child like look because they are a bit unorganised, and also those big teeth. 
I really like this guy! 



Front view and close up of the jaw mechanism. It looks a bit like an upsidown car with a mouth. 


Making some sketches of Snappy !

This was one of the other automitons there, if you twist the handle on the brown er..Box? The mouse on the bottom goes to the left and cat swipes its paw down but misses the mouse, it goes on in an agonising endless failure for the cat. He doesn't seem to mind though. (I really like this one!)


I decided to draw the cat in my style, by the way the Ins there stood for Inconspicuous. 
I really liked the idea Rodney Peppe had for the cat.

Rodney Peppe made this little valentines day elephant automaton. 
I have no clue how its flying , it's an elephant buts its really cute!

I found the little elephant really cute and got inspired  to sketch it
for some ideas later.




some of the exhibits we were not allowed to touch as they were quite fragile , but there were two that I  could try out and play with to see how they work 



Here a video clip of it in motion























and another little bird automaton and a video clip of it moving 





 

here a closeup of the mechanism that moves the different bird elements



I liked this one and how simple the animated movements were yet they turned it into a memory game
and I always like animals anyway :-3


 it was interesting to see into the different sketches Rodney Peppe made before he went on to constructing his designs



My favourite animated exhibit, a little circus acrobat, it was really funny because sometimes it would make it over the bar but most of the time it wouldn't, and when you saw him move you waited with baited breath for him to go over and when he did you'd feel genuinely excited. 





What I learned :
-----------------------
 I learned a lot about the different types of automatons, there are a lot of different shapes and mechanisms for automitons. We didn't get to see many of the mechanisms behind the wooden panelling of the automaton itself but learned from those that were on display and got shown at the artist talk .

 I learned that the shapes of the automaton your making have to be simple so the mechanism wont get jammed. The simple shapes can also be applied to digital animation to achieve a particular style also the simple movements can make the animation look very interesting. Because most animations are done in a realistic style, using simple shapes and movements t can make it seem cute (stylized things are often seen as cute, an example would be snapper, his simplicity makes him very cute.)

What I did not like: 
-------------------------

I was a little disappointed that the automatons movements were jerky and looked non-fluid and i couldn't learn much from the animation point of view.



Echo :3


Unit 1 - Arts Awards Silver - Rodney Peppe Automation and Animation


Unit 1 - Arts Award Silver - Rodney Peppe Meet the Artist

   Unit 1 - Arts Award Silver - Meet the Artist Rodney Peppe



What did I attend: 
-------------------------

Rodney Peppé Art exhibition and Meet the Artist Opportunity


Where did I attend it :
-----------------------------
 
 at the Ruthin Art center , Wales



My Learning Log :
-----------------------



 On the first day of my visit to the Rodney Peppe Exhibition I  go tot a chance to briefly meet the artist and have a chat with him. He had a Meet the Artist talk the next day and said he was looking forward to seeing me there.



Very excited to get a chance to meet Rodney Peppe, so we are all set to stay the night in our campervan to get back to the exhibition for a second time tomorrow.



Back at the exhibition and lots of people have turned up to meet Rodney Peppe, lots of
illutration students, some already childrens book illustrators have travelled to meet him.
He walks around the whole exhibit to tell about his process and his stories.



it was great to see some of his first character design sketches and hear what he thought about when he created them.


He was happy to demonstrate some of the mechanisms on his automatons that we could not see before


 

he even got out some of the other items to demonstrate how they work , as with most animated automitons you cant really tell until they move



 


And the final highlight of my day 
 After asking for an autograph he asked whether he could see my sketchbook as he had seen me sketching at the exhibition earlier 






I was pretty shocked when he asked me and all i managed to say was "Um..Yeah sure." quickly. 

I looked through my sketches to see if i could find my best ones that I had in that notebook. 
When he did come over to see my sketchbook I showed him the drawings I had made based off of his art (Snapper, the cat etc). He told me "I had real character in my lines" that made me feel really proud afterwards all I could say at the time was "Mmm.." I hadn't really heard him. He looked through most of my sketchbook actually and managed to single out basically all the art I did based off of his. 
It was absolutely amazing and one of the best experiences of my life. 


My mum got a small video excerpt of our chat 
his final words he said to my mum where 
" Do encourage her, she has got real potential  especially as she has such character in her line" 

That made me feel very proud and encouraged .





Rodney Peppe Artists Interview Question & Answer Session

Who is Rodney Peppe ?
Rodney Peppe is a british author, artist and illustrator who made some of his tories into animated movies with the BBC.
He was born in England in 1934 and until today has written and illustrated over 80 books . 
He also creates automaton and animated toys. 
Two of Rodney Peppé's children's book series have been adapted for animated television.

You can read more in his wikipedia entry here 


Question: How did you get started in writing stories ?

Answer: First I made lots of collages using other peoples images and created picture books that way. Then one day I thought " I'd better write my own stories" and so I made a model to help me write it. That model was Henry the Elephant which turned into a picture book illustrated for younger children.


Question:  When you make your models, does the story that goes with the models come first or does the model ?

Answer:  I have the idea first, then build the model. As I build the model the ideas for a story start to come and I get more ideas as I start looking at it and get a feeling for the character.


Question:  What is your most favourite thing you made?

Answer : Huxley Pig and Henry the Elephant. Huxley because he is my most successful character and Henry because he is the first model I made , that I made into a character and because he is so much fun.

Question:  What do you think about today's cartoons ?

Answer:  The thing about todays cartoons is the violence. I don't like violence. All my stories dont have any violence in them , I don't think it is necessary in children's stories. My stories are about my characters adventures and although there is a counter character that often upsets the story line it never comes to violence and always resolves itself friendly and kindly in the end. 


Question: Do you have any advice for any young artists today?  

Answer: Practice drawing, try make a model to help you with your drawing of perspective and the telling of the story .

   Unit 1 - Arts Award Silver - Meet the Artist Rodney Peppe

Jun 27, 2013

Unit 1 - Arts Awards Silver - Rodney Peppe Exhibition - Inspiration for Character Design

UNIT 1- Arts Award Silver 

 Rodney Peppe Exhibition - Inspiration for Character Design



What did I attend: 
-------------------------

Rodney Peppé Art exhibition


Where did I attend it :
-----------------------------
 
 at the Ruthin Art center , Wales


 Why did you attend it?
-----------------------------
I wanted to learn more about a real life author, animator and artist and hopefully learn about his inspiration and process to create his artworks.


How was your experience? 
----------------------------------- 
It was brilliant and much more informative than I expected at first. I enjoyed it so much I went back a second time to get a closer look. Will write more in another post about that.


My Learning Log :
-----------------------

What did I learn about/ try out/ attend/ practice?


  • I went to a exhibition on Rodney Peppé, a cartoonist, author and automaton maker. He's famous for having some of his stories turned into children's animation series for the TV. 

Gallery Entrance to the Rodney Peppe Exhibition


A chance to look at the storyboarding ideas of Roger Peppe for his animated movies


What did I find out ?


  • I found out about how to make models for drawing reference and how to story board  better. It was interesting to see how for each story he wrote he made a model for either the characters or objects in the story, for instance: he made a model of a shoe house for his book "The Mice Who Lived in a Shoe". The mice in his story lived in a shoe full of holes so they decided to build a house inside the shoe and patch up all the holes in the foot ware. The concept of the mice building their own things was successful and he made five other books with the mice using this idea.

  

here the model for the shoe house

 here a picture the story book design of the show the mice started out with

  • He made models to draw from and the first ever model for reference he drew was an elephant called Henry, he used the Henry model to draw from for his books on Henry such as "Henry's aeroplane". 


here the elephant model he made out of wood in a deckchair prop

  • The second one he made was Huxley Pig, the model itself was used for reference for making a stop motion animation model for the BBC animators to use. What surprised me was actually how big the models Rodney Peppe made are, i would have expected them to be about as big as my hand but they're about double that size. 

 character design sketch of Huxley Pig as Rodney Peppe imagined him to be




the model he made of Huxley Pig and the airplane to help with developing
his character design and help sketching from it for his books


he also made models for some of the major props that appeared
in his stories to help him draw in perspective




here a story boarding picture showing how 
Rodney Peppe used the bed as a prop for Huxley pigs adventures




What did I like about Rodney Peppe's work ?


  • I really liked the Kettleship model because i was inspired by the way he made models to help with his illustration of his books. a Lot of detail went into making these models that helped with illustrating them in different positions later on

     my favourite


  • I liked the models he made of Huxley Pig and the elephant and Mouse because they inspire me to make models of characters before drawing them and developing their character for my animation stories.


  • I liked the Flying Basket and the way he used normal cast off objects from around the house to recycle them and create a new prop for his story and a vehicle r house for his various characters



the flying basket prop 


the Travel Machine prop for his book 
The Mice and the Travel Machine


the Moon Flying Space Travel Machine Prop for his book 
The Mice on the Moon 




I loved this prop made out of an old egg carton for another character design in his moon book




I loved that all the original artworks and story boards for his character designs where on display and I enjoyed sketching and making notes for my ideas . I liked that Rodney Peppe both wrote and illustrated his own stories as well as help create animated films of his story books.


there was also a fun activity offered that asked me to think about a way in which I would use objects to create story props




What did I not like ?

  • I didn't like the huge amount of people there at the exhibition , it made it harder for me to focus. I was a little disappointed that the automatons movements were jerky and looked non-fluid and i couldn't learn much from the animation point of view. What I learned and saw I will write in another post



What do I want to investigate further ?


  • I liked the idea of being able to view different positions and photograph a model to import into photoshop. Also the idea of making models out of found objects such as things you might find lost or washed up at the beach. And possibly making models out of clay. 




More to come about my second visit to the exhibition to learn more and get a chance to see a workshop in place.



Unit 1 - Arts Awards Silver - Rodney Peppe Exhibition - Inspiration for Character Design