I wasn’t sure where to start with this task, so I just took pictures of things I liked or that I noticed, at first in my house and then all along Clapham High Street as I was walking to the shop. Then I started thinking about what these things meant to me and what they reminded me of. The little figurines reminded me of the day we put up all the picture and decorations in our house. The ‘Come in We’re Open’ sign reminded of when we moved to the area during lockdown, and everything on the high street was closed. And then I realised the story about moving in, and settling in, the journey for this house and area to feel like home.
Thomas Harnett O’Meara is a director who specialises in animated storytelling
Plant Geometry (2014)
Plant Geometry is an example of replacement animation, made during O’Meara’s studies at the Royal Academy of Art.
Roald and Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse (2020)
O’Meara was the Animation Director for Roald and Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse’, which was inspired by a true story about Roald Dahl and Beatrix Potter.
Today we used replacement animation to make paper transform from one shape to another. I was going from a square to a circle and I wanted to be a little ambitious with it, making the shape turn into something else before it became a circle. I decided to have the square sink into the table and turn into an ocean wave before disappearing again and rising up as a circle.
My frames for replacement animation of shape transformation
It took me a bit of time to figure out the anatomy of wave, and in hindsight I could have used a reference instead of judging it by eye. But I think I still managed to create the illusion I was trying to, mostly. One thing I’d tried to convey was that the square, once it has disappeared beneath the surface, ‘swims’ along a bit, unseen, before emerging again as a wave. It didn’t quite look right though, so the tutor recommended using an eye-trace next time. So if I were to do it again, I’d have maybe a tiny dot of paper moving across the surface of the table to indicate the movement underneath, as if the square hasn’t totally submerged.
I think next time I would also plan out my frames a bit more before cutting them out, to have an idea of how many I’ll need. That would facilitate for more precise changes in speed as well, because it would be easier to add or take away frames between keyframes at the planning stage rather than the cutting out and animation stages.
They thought it fitted the children’s cartoon style, in colours, movement and shape
Someone agreed that the square would look better if it fell faster before it hits the pentagon
Feedback from tutor:
She felt the final movement of the pentagon not quite right. It could be more exaggerated
Final changes:
To finish off my piece, I just changed the final movements of the pentagon when the circle stops. Instead of having it slowly fall and then drop quickly, before bouncing back up again, I made it stay mostly upright and just settle back and forth, increasing in speed by decreasing each movement.
This change is maybe less confusing, but also perhaps less interesting. I think in future work, I’d like to carry on with messing with gravity and how the viewer would expect something to move.
