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Author: Shizra Manzar

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4.1 Week 1 Collaborative Unit

Week 1: Unit Introduction

Introduction

This week we received the unit overview. In this course, we have the opportunity to work on unique and creative projects in collaboration with our peers. We were given an introduction on the topics we can work on and later on in the day we met the prospective collaborators in the social meetup.

Basic Understanding of Collaboration

In the class, we discussed collaboration, why do we do it and how to approach it in a group.

Why do we Collaborate?

Collaboration improves the way the team works together to solve problems. This leads to more innovation, efficient processes, increased success, and improved communication. Through listening to and learning from team members, you can help each other reach your goals.

Key to effective collaboration?

Communication is the key to effective collaboration as it helps to solve problems. It is always better to discuss your ideas and define your goals. Active listening is also an important factor. Defining your tasks before deadline and time management helps to make a collaboration successful.

How collaboration works across different disciplines?

It is important to understand each other’s unique skills first, and according to the skills, tasks are divided. Another essential thing is to divide the big tasks into small sub-tasks to keep a better check. We can also use some project management websites e.g. HacknPlan or Asana

Brainstorming

Apart from that we were told some techniques of idea generation and we shared our ideas on the Miro Board. I was interested in showing climatic disaster from dystopian perspective.

Social Meetup

We also got the opportunity to meet students and mentors of MA VFX, MA Animation, MA Game Design, and MA VR in a social gathering. The Social Meetup helped to break the ice among students of different courses. I got the opportunity to discuss my idea with the course leader of MA Virtual Reality and she introduced me to some students of Virtual Reality. Some of the students are interested to collaborate with me on my project.

Meet and Greet Padlet Board

I chose to work on the topic of “Utopia and Dystopia”. I have always been intrigued by dystopian themes, so I decided to work on post-climatic apocalyptic dystopian environments. This project will help create awareness and show people an alarming glimpse of the future, if we do not take any action to improve our planet.

Image showing the entry on Padlet board
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2.1 Week 10 Design for Animation

Week 10: Assignment Preparation & Unit Overview

This week we were given instructions on how to make the audio/visual presentation of the research topic.

Essentials of the Presentation

The following contents should be kept in mind while making the presentation

  • Present a brief outline of the intention of your research.
  • Briefly outline the information sources that are accessed
  • Select the key areas of investigation that informed your findings
  • Conclusion
  • Potentials for applying this learning and furthering knowledge in practice and or theory

Unit Overview

In this term, we have learned film structure and its narrative from a theoretical perspective. We were also shown suitable short films and visual references to support the theory. We explored the important tools of research and methodologies in depth. All the guidelines and information we absorbed in this course enabled us to create our research topics.

Importance of Critical Thinking and how it helped:

The sessions broaden my horizon of film studies. The assignments given throughout the term enabled critical thinking and reasoning in me. It made me able to consider different perspectives and gave me cognitive flexibility. Exploration of different topics of animation via theory helped me to choose my interests more wisely.

Moreover, critical thinking helped me in every step of writing the report and making the research presentation. These skills will also facilitate us to make thesis dissertations and the final project.

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1.1 Week 10 3D Computer Animation

Week 10: Unit Review

This course was something I was looking forward to study even before the session started. I have always been fond of 3D and Animation but neither I had a mentor nor I had a chance to study it in depth. I had immense expectations from this course and it was exactly like how I expected it to be. It gave me the platform to learn Computer Animation under a supervision of a great mentor. In addition, enabled me to learn a 3d software Maya by working on different tasks and assignments.

Software

I had only used Maya before only for the purpose of animation. This course gave me a chance to practice various fields of 3d art like modelling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting, and rendering.

Both classes of Nick and George were equally helpful. Nick’s session helped us to broaden our knowledge of software and how can we become generalist artist. George’s session helped me to improve the basics of animation and how we can use the software in the best of our interest.

Animation

The animation course was my favourite one. We started from basic 12 principles of animation and implemented them in every assignment we got. In the duration of our first term we learned the basics of Facial and Body Animation. We also learned to edit the rigs to make them more flexible according to our requirement.

Assignments & Feedback

The weekly assignments and the improvement feedback played a significant role in enhancing my animation knowledge and ability. It has improved my skills. The feedback I received from my mentors helped me in clearing my basics and I am looking forward to learn more in the next term.

Conclusion

I absolutely enjoyed this course and I am thankful to the mentors for their valuable input and feedback.

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2.1 Week 9 Design for Animation

Week 9: Report Structure and Referencing

Introduction

This week we discussed the report structure and its format. Apart from that, we were also told how to cite the resources according to Harvard referencing.

Individually we worked on our reports this week. I worked on finalising my research topic and wrote the abstract.

Title

Pixar’s Turning Red: A Ground-breaking Exploration of Women’s Representation and Taboo Topics in Animation

Abstract

In recent years, many animation studios have shown their interest in stories highlighting diverse characters and unique subjects. The focus of this report is on one of such animated films, Turning Red, made by Pixar Studios. With its unique subject and distinctive storyline, Turning Red has torn up the rulebook and rebuilt Pixar in its own style. It has been outshined for its inclusion of taboo subjects, breaking gender stereotypes and all-women directorial team. It is an example of how young female representation should look like in modern films. Not only does it hyper focus on the teenage girls, who are often ignored in the Pixar studios, but it also breaks the “for dads from dads” Pixar phenomena. The film has taken a profound take not only on the struggles of puberty, but on the specific dynamic of good daughters, family and friendship values, intergenerational trauma, and representation of Chinese culture. In this report I will discuss the repression faced by young girls, particularly when it comes to their burgeoning sexuality and the shame that society often places on them for expressing themselves. In addition to exploring these themes, Turning Red also challenges traditional Hollywood practices and promotes gender inclusivity in the animation industry.

Key Words

Gender, Sexuality, Taboo, Menstruation, Culture, Tradition, Puberty, Animated films, Animation, Pixar, Turning Red, Glass-ceiling

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2.1 Week 8 Design for Animation

Week 8: Writing Approaches

This week we studied the essential components of academic writing. We discussed some tips for academic writing as well as do’s and don’ts

For the academic writing we need to keep the following things in mind.

  • A clear know how of the research topic
  • The objective of research
  • Data and in information that helps you do the research
  • Conclusion

Writing Introduction and Conclusion

The introduction and Conclusion both are the most crucial part of writing the report.

The introduction of a report is crucial since it establishes the overall tone. It should outline the topic of the essay and provide a summary of what the essay’s body will discuss. The What, Why, and How strategy is one technique you can employ while writing your introduction.

The conclusion gave a summary of your report and shows the outcome of the whole research. The conclusion should also link to the title of the report and we have to make sure to answer all the questions asked in the title by this point.

Literature Review

In the literature review, I am going to talk about my topics with reference to books and scholarly articles. The topics I will talk about are

  • Gender Stereotypes
  • Portrayal of Women in Pixar
  • Male-centred Narratives
  • Stigma around Taboo Topics

Reference List

  • Kaur, H. (2022) ‘Turning Red’ tackles puberty and periods in a way that’s rare. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/10/entertainment/turning-red-puberty-periods-wellness-cec/index.html (Accessed 9 December 2022). 
  • Duke, D (2022) Pixar’s “Turning Red” brings unprecedented female representation. Available at: http://www.duqsm.com/pixars-turning-red-brings-unprecedented-female-representation/
  • (Accessed 9 December 2022).
  • Bain, A. (2003). White Western teenage girls and urban space: challenging Hollywood’s representations. Gender, Place, and Culture, pp. 197-213
  • Gillam, K., Wooden, S. (2008). Post-princess models of gender: The new man in Disney/Pixar. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 36(1), 2-8.
  • Nolan, E. (2009). Pixar’s gender problem. Retrieved August 31, 2009, from Film.com. Website: http://www.film.com/features/story/pixars-gender-problem/26520445
  • Turning Red (2022) Domee Shi [DVD]. United States: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
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2.1 Week 7 Design for Animation

Week 7: Bibliography

This week we were divided into groups so that we could discuss our tentative research topics. The idea behind this was to interact with our peers about our tentative research topics and the resources. We discussed about the books and academic papers we could use in our report. The discussion helped us to navigate our ideas with more clarity. The group discussion broaden our horizon to explore our research topics from different perspective.

Research Topics

Some of the topics for the research report I have in my mind are:

  • Objectification of Women in Children Cinema
  • How Animated Films are breaking gender stereotypes?
  • Breaking Stereotypes: Representation of Female lead in Pixar
  • Pixar’s “Turning Red” helped break glass ceiling
  • Breaking Stereotypes: Pixar’s breaks away from regular storytelling in the movie “Turning Red”

Bibliography for Research Report

  • Kaur, H. (2022) ‘Turning Red’ tackles puberty and periods in a way that’s rare. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/10/entertainment/turning-red-puberty-periods-wellness-cec/index.html (Accessed 9 December 2022). 
  • Duke, D (2022) Pixar’s “Turning Red” brings unprecedented female representation. Available at: http://www.duqsm.com/pixars-turning-red-brings-unprecedented-female-representation/ (Accessed 9 December 2022).
  • Bain, A. (2003). White Western teenage girls and urban space: challenging Hollywood’s representations. Gender, Place, and Culture, pp. 197-213
  • Gillam, K., Wooden, S. (2008). Post-princess models of gender: The new man in Disney/Pixar. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 36(1), 2-8.
  • Nolan, E. (2009). Pixar’s gender problem. Retrieved August 31, 2009, from Film.com. Website: http://www.film.com/features/story/pixars-gender-problem/26520445
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1.1 Week 9 3D Computer Animation

Week 9: Final Render

This week we refined the animation of lip sync and set up the camera, texture, light and took the render.

Video Showing Final Render

Conclusion

This whole facial rigging exercise was very beneficial. We explored sculpting, rigging, weight painting, phonetics, and blend shapes. This exercise helped us to explore the muscle study of the face. We learned how the movement of one muscle or bone influences the other part of the face.

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1.1 Week 9 3D Computer Animation

Week 9: Body Mechanics Shot

This week in the animation class we were supposed to work on the body mechanics shot that we planned the previous week. I started the animation by doing blocking first by keeping the reference in mind. After that I started adding in between keys to make it smooth.

Challenges faced

The most critical challenge I faced was timing and spacing. In the first pass my timing is very slow and it does not feel like character has put so much force to jump over the wall. I assumed that I have to add some pushed poses and anticipation in the character.

First Pass

Final Animation

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1.1 Week 8 3D Computer Animation

Week 8: Planning a Body Mechanics shot

This week we were given the task to plan a body mechanics shot. I wanted to create something that gives an action vibe. So, I decided to make an animation of jump.

Reference video

I decided to use this as reference video.

Rough Planning Sketch

I then made a rough 2D Animation from some key poses I took from the reference video. It is always handy to have visual references before blocking it in 3D.

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1.1 Week 8 3D Computer Animation

Week 8: Lip-Syncing Animation

Previously, we made blend shapes and phonetics of the head model. This week our task was to pick a dialogue audio and animate the head and do lip syncing. As the character I made was imaginative I did not take any direct reference from the video clip. I have reinforced some different expressions so that the character looks more believable.

Video showing Work in Progress

This is my attempt the animate the character’s head.

Video showing the Lip-syncing animation