Assignment 3: Ingenious Devices

Brief

In response to the previous research task, create a design or blueprint for your own ingenious device. This can either be based on one of the themes below or on an idea of your own:

• A humane mouse trap

• Making breakfast

• Personal grooming

• Cutting the grass

• Exercising

• A new form of public transportation

Your final artwork can be an illustration, an object, an animation or another form of your own choice. Remember to include any notes, sketches and other research when you upload your assignment work to your learning log.

Intention

My aim for this assignment is to create a new form of public transportation (and to boldly go where I haven't gone before) in a form of animation. I was so inspired by the previous research task that I wanted to go down the animation route.

Research (Part 1: Invention)

How do I come up with an invention? Something new?

Coming up with an invention starts off by thinking of what is needed right now, where is there improvements needed in the public transport? After that, you need to think about what are the problems that need to be solved for this public transport, and how can we make public transport better.

All of it is finding a gap in the market, by figuring out what's needed and what we need to solve we will start to think of something to make. Once you've figured it out, double check it's useful-- I don't think my invention will ever be made, so I won't have to worry about that. 1

I did go down the route of personal transportation by accident, coming up with an electric roller blade- which has been done and is not a form of public transport. However, it did lead to decide that I wanted to use green energy, and I wanted it to be an enjoyable public transportation. So it got me thinking about what source of energy I wanted to use, and I immediately said "no" to battery and the typical 'electric cars'-- I wanted a new form. So I researched what different types of green energy (for vehicles) there were, there are:

• Electric

• Hydrogen

• Plug-in Hybrid

• "Biogas CNG"

• Vegetable Oil

• Bio-Diesel

• Ethanol

• Compressed Air 2

All of these were interesting, however something I've seen in passing before that interested me, was solar-powered energy. It was ideal for my aim to go green for the planet.

So from there I had a plan, I wanted to make a "bus" that uses solar-power energy, that ideally was for a slower pace of travel-- since I always feel like time goes by so quickly that we miss the moments that is beautiful.

Developments

Initial sketches

It started off as an open-air bus, however it would be very dangerous and isn't very accessible to many people so I trialed out different shapes and wheel types, leading towards a modern square shape, until, I noticed that it started to look like a bug. So I made it more round with round windows and inspired by a ladybird, which I now call...

The Buggle! (Final concept)

A cute bug design for a nature trail public transport, a slower, greener way of travel for lovers of nature. This Buggle had to me light in colour since more animals have to be safe when this is moving, and they see the light colours easier than that of darker ones. (You can see these colours when I colour test later on).

I made it so the doors would lift like the wings and the wheels are big and chunky suited for all types of surfaces, I was inspired by art nouveau with the windows since I was so bored of the dull squares and I wanted something more eye-catching. The driver is surrounded by protect glass in the front with "eyes" for mirrors to see behind which also act as lights at night-time. Though I wouldn't use the Buggle for night-time (animal safety).

Research (Part 2:Animation)

By doing something completely new, I had to do some research into animation; I watched some videos online to get inspiration and learn simple tips of animation as a beginner. The only experience I had was a summer school doing animation, and that was a long while ago.

I wanted to see how much work it was to animate a single sequence, and found a great video by 'So Crafty Art'. This video showed a simple walking cycle, it was a interesting way of seeing how bounce and movement works in animation. They initially use 'onion skin' and sketching to lay down the sequence before going back over and creating the illustration that it to be animated. Once the background is designed and is long enough to pan across, they combine the both to create the iconic walking cycle.

After exploring the initial refresher on animation, I went to look for inspiration on a car sequence and found this video: Getaway Car. A "simple" sequence of robbers getting into a now-broken-down car. The animation is choppy and looks like it runs on every other second, but it's charming and also very inspiring. So inspiring that I thought that I could do a whole car sequence (spoiler alert: I am way too ambitious).

After this I watched my favourite animators of all-time and I have mentioned them many times, Studio Ghibli. Two movies that were, Spirited Away and Arrietty. What I found inspiring and something that I thought I could do is the simple, calming sequence. Ghibli is all about taking in the moment and sitting with nature- and since my vehicle is the same. I stumbled across a video explaining what makes Studio Ghibli films alive.

Studio Ghibli movies are nature-based, it's all nature. What makes the film- apart from its beautiful watercolour scenes, is it's sound. You have natural and beautiful sounds with contrasting unnatural sounds that capture your attention and bring you into the moment. Regardless on the movie's plot and set varying from one another, no matter what, you'll find sounds that make a powerful impact.

Studio Ghibli runs it's animations on "2s", which means that it's not fluid, it's choppy. But the movies doesn't feel that, those sounds fill the gaps between the choppy stills; the sounds create the "texture" of the scene.

The reason I've not mention the iconic Disney for my research is because it doesn't feel as inspiring, impactful and beautiful as a Studio Ghibli movie. The movies are full of character in every scene, in every moment. An animation is not without it's sound. Therefore something I wanted to include in my animation, is sound. 5

Final Developments

Animation Thumbnails

I got very ambition and thought that I would be able to create a whole working sequence of a car moving around but I am still very new to animation and changed the idea as I came to it.

Colour tests

I wanted warm colours and light colours (minus the dark wheels and the solar panel top) to bring that nature idea into light.

Animation Stills

Making Process

I used watercolour to create the stills and ink pen to highlight the main focus of the animation, similar to Studio Ghibli. After that I scanned them in and brightened them up.

I used a new program called 'Procreate Dreams' to create these sequences, the one below is an example of the second animation I did. I broke up the layers into three different animated movements.

First the background- which was one long panel of trees that moved slowly across the workspace. The second was the Buggle, I animated it moving up and down slightly to give the idea that the bus was moving on uneven ground. The third animation is the foreground, using dark shadows to give the illusion that those trees are closer to us- moving faster than the background (which was a tip I found on YouTube shorts, however I cannot find the video).

Lastly, I added two sounds that I found online, one of a vehicle and the other of nature. I did the same (but without the car noises) for the first animation I worked on.

Final Works

This is the first one I made, it's simple and includes sound and has pollen drifting through the frame.

The second on is a moving animation as the scenery moves past the Buggle to give the illusion that the bus is moving; I've included sound into this animation as well.

Evaluation

I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment, I've spent time planning and researching to get to the video of Buggle, and by stepping outside of my comfort zone I made two animations (or one if you consider the stills as animation or a video). I made two videos since I wasn't sure if the first one counted, and I really wanted to try out animating a full sequence without stills.

I've enjoyed each process and found myself researching things in my personal time to get ideas and ended up losing research videos, I've been constantly talking about it to co-workers and family about if the idea was interesting and if it's something that they would consider as an invention and it has gone positively well.

What I wish I had done was done a better job with watercolour stills, I tried really hard to get the beautiful nature and looked through lots of videos of animated nature, and it's a little disappointing in the end result. For the future, I will sit down and studying and paint movie stills to get an idea of how background should look like and get better and doing backgrounds.

Apart from that I'm very proud of myself for trying something new, and creating something without hesitation or judgement, just creating with the flow. I really think that the sounds add to the animations and thankfully I did that because of my research on animation (and Studio Ghibli).

Looking back, working on feedback

A really interesting note that I wanted to work that my tutor mentioned- is to try and include colour into the moving animation to really make it stand out and feel fleshed out, I wanted to challenge myself further by doing this.

Reflection on work (Part 2)

I am really glad I revisited this task and added colour (and shading in some places), it makes the whole thing look much more polished and interesting to look at. By pushing myself further with the tutor feedback has allowed me to open up a new side of art for me, I've really enjoyed reworking this and has made me feel inspired to create more animation.

Reworking it, I made sure to have some animations of Studio Ghibli playing to reference how they use colour in terms of dimension and distance, so I focused on create a lighter, saturated background and a less saturated foreground to give the illusion of distance. I added some textures to the ground and the vehicle to make it pop more and create a semi-realistic style.

As I finish this blog up, I wonder if I could implement the traditional animation process of Studio Ghibli into future projects-- unlike this digital animation process.

1 U/A, The Inventions Handbook 'How to Find New Invention Ideas in Six Easy Steps', U/A. https://www.inventions-handbook.com/new-invention-ideas.html Accessed Feb 2, 2024.

2 A Smith, FuelMate '10 Alternative Fuels for Vehicles', Jan 28, 2022. https://fuelmate.co.uk/alternative-fuels-for-vehicles/ Accessed Feb 2, 2024.

3 So Crafty Art, YouTube 'Procreate Animation｜Tutorial for Beginners｜Walk Cycle', Feb 20, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clPb_Pf20ps&t=72s Accessed Feb 2, 2024.

4 Board Studios, YouTube 'Funny video - 2D animation - "Getaway Car', Nov 6, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM2LK5AMhyk Accessed Feb 2, 2024.

5 kaptainkristian, YouTube 'How Studio Ghibli Makes Animation Feel Alive', Nov 25, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6PPxN1xas&t=601s Accessed Feb 2, 2024.