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

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



What did I attend: 
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Rodney Peppé Art exhibition


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

My Learning Log :

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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 :

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 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: 
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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