LAUAN501 - Study task 7 - Visual Journal - Context

Studio Brief 2 - Theory into Practice Context
Contextualise, reference, analyse my work in relation to the following practitioners/disciplines:

LAUAN501 - Study task 7 - Visual Journal - Media and Process

Studio Brief 2 - Theory into Practice Media and Process
Visually and practically explore my subject using the following media and processes:


(scan practical work for imagery)

LAUAN501 - Study task 7 - Visual Journal - Secondary research

Studio Brief 2 - Theory into Practice Secondary research
Draw, photograph, record and develop my own visual material through the following activities:

Imagery for researching further into the drawings and application of media for conveying the message and the production of animation for the chosen proto question. 'How British politics are represented through animation and cartoons?'

Media options and graphic design, referencing concept art from Pink Floyd and Animal Farm.


Animal farm animation

Cartoons that are portraying political leaders or political motives through anthropomorphic characters and animals to represent the themes and messages about the impact on a society.

Colour and media express more emotion and meaning, especially with the application of traditional media in the practical journal, this image has a strong concept behind it, the red could represent suffering and blood, the white pig standing on two legs represents an evil corruption through unnatural sentience, applying a conscience to a pig. How would a pig think? Why does it represent corruption and greed? These are all good examples as to why the pig symbolises an illness in wealth and a sickness in mortality in my opinion.

The Black Eagle, Goodbye Blue Sky, Pink Floyd the Wall.

A Black Nazi eagle (Reichsadler) tearing up the lands and leaving trails of blood and gore.

LAUAN501 - Study task 7 - Visual Journal - Primary research

Studio Brief 2 - Theory into Practice Primary research
Identify, collect, record and evaluate visual material from the following sources:


Practical responses to your subject
A visual investigation of your developed question exploring the themes, theories, insights and methods through image-making. This visual investigation will take the form of a Visual Journal (format of your choosing) and will lead towards the development of a more resolved outcome.

This could involve making a start on your sketchbook using material from your project 'overview'.

Words of relation to project, expressed through Practical journal:



Do:

1.Identify what you have learnt so far.

Essay reference, readings, concepts.

Pink Floyd The Wall, descriptive words, depression, loneliness, trapt, seclusion, stuck, sacrifice, suffering.
Pressurize (someone) into adopting radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible means.

2.Discuss how the research might be explored practically.

Character design, sequential image, layout, backgrounds, artefacts, moving image or any other appropriate means. You will justify your choices and activities through a formal proposal using theory, concept and context.

3.What are you going to need to do.

4.Primary and Secondary research?

5.Defining terms - important quotes, theories , statistics etc.

Disdainful teacher, the feeling that someone or something is unworthy of one's consideration or respect.
6.Suitable Media.

Inks, Acrylic, colouring pencils (water soluble), soft pastels, pencil, and fine-liner
7.Testing about the effectiveness of experiments.

8.How can this be contextualised within your research theme and your specialism in animation?



First section - Referencing images from concept imagery form books and themes such as 'Pink Floyd The Wall'.

LAUAN501 - Harvard Reference List Overview

Harvard Reference List Overview



citations are extracts of text, a small quote..



Reference lists are created to allow readers to locate original sources themselves. Each citation in a reference list includes various pieces of information including the:





Name of the author(s)

Year published

Title

City published

Publisher

Pages used




Generally, Harvard Reference List citations follow this format:

Last name, First Initial. (Year published). Title. City: Publisher, Page(s).




Citations are listed in alphabetical order by the author’s last name.




If there are multiple sources by the same author, then citations are listed in order by the date of publication.

LAUAN501 - Study Task 5 - Proposal (Practical approach)

Proposal

How the research / reading can be used is to be used as a starting point (theorists / writers / phenomena / case studies / quotes).

Researching and reading about



What you intend to investigate and why?

What activities do you  intend on undertaking?

Questionnaires / focus groups / experiments / visits / use of materials and media. (is it highly experimental or more formal sketchbook activities?)

What do you envisage the end product being?

A short animation, GIF, Rushes, A sketchbook? An artefact? A record of activities or event?

Start doing the work!

LAUAN501 - Study Task 4 - Introduction

Study Task 4 Introduction

Proto question:

How are British politics represented through animation and cartoons?

My introduction about how are British politics represented in animation, so this is partly through symbolism of consumption and it's influence on a society. Also symbolism and motto's shown such as the Hammerskins, two claw hammers crossed, which based on a fictitious neo-nazi organization depicted in the 1982 film Pink Floyd - The Wall and animated in the music video.

What have I found so far?

Concepts/ideas

My idea/proto question is about how are British politics represented in animation, so this is partly through symbolism of consumption and it's influence on a society. Also symbolism and motto's shown such as the Hammerskins, two claw hammers crossed, which based on a fictitious neo-nazi organization depicted in the 1982 film Pink Floyd - The Wall and animated in the music video.

In relation to 'Animal Farm' from 1954, I have researched about the political imagery, characters and what morals they expressed for the audience, especially how their roles are played out in the story, such as seen throughout history, more recently at the time of the animation production. For example, Snowball the pig as the main protagonist imitating, Napoleon dictatorship but most notably Hitlers nazi Germany and when the regime invaded Europe, the Government controlling, manipulating and executing the population for control.

The second quote fits well with the first because (in triangulated quotes below), we as a society see fit to fall into a system of constant manipulation and influence from the higher ruling powers in politics and business, we are subject to our social patterns and processes of the masses, because we are only looking to the future goal and now where we currently reside as a population or society.

Triangulated core texts:

(quote, pages 38-39, 'Fundamental currents in Society, Chapter 1 - 'The Characteristics of Propaganda, Internal Characteristics. PROPAGANDA - The formations of men's attitudes, (author) Jacques Ellul - Author of the technological society).

1) “We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organised.”    

― Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society

(quotes, page 59, 'the ideological genesis of needs', 'From Symbolic Exchange To Sign Value. 'The Consumer Society' - READER, Edited by Juliet B. Schor and Douglas B. Holt.)

2) "It is from the (theoretically isolatable) moment when the exchange is no longer purely transitive, when the object (the material of exchange) is immediately presented as such, that it is reified into a sign."

"The sign object is neither given nor exchanged: it is appropriated, withheld and manipulated by individual subjects as a sign, that is, as coded difference."
― Juliet B. Schor, The Consumer Society Reader

(Page 37-38, Chapter 1 - Organising Chaos, Propaganda, author - Edward L. Bernays)

3)“Consumption is a social relationship, the dominant relationship in our society—one that makes it harder and harder for people to hold together, to create community.”    

― Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda.

Case studies - images, examples, phenomena have you found relating to your project - how do they link together? Triangulate? (Use at least 4 examples - images, stills, links to animations)

LAUAN501 - Study Task 3 - Images and Theory (Overview)

Study Task 3 - Images and Theory
Overview of research.

(pointers) Ideas for my theme and question:

(TASK)

1. Select and define important terms / concepts you have discovered through your reading (if you do not have any you may choose from the list below)
2. Collect and analyse examples / images / phenomena that could be interpreted as following these concepts.
3. How could they be used to interpret your theme / question? Triangulate with theorists and critics.

You may apply the analysis technique below to examples - to help deconstruct your choices.

• Context / when it was made / where it appears (including when)
• Subject / content / compostiton
• Audience / who is it aimed at 
• Purpose / why was it made / why was it used 
• Method of production

The Woman with the Matches by Francis Picabia.
Picabia was at the center of Dada's more celebrated activities between 1917, the year he brought out the first issue of his irreverent journal 391, and October 1924, when he published the final issue of 391 (no. 19) attacking the new movement of Surrealism. 

While Marcel Duchamp, beginning in 1912, was the first to explore the symbolicand anti-aesthetic possibilities of the machine and mechanical imagery, it was Picabia who, perhaps more than any other artist, later pursued the theme with magnificent inventiveness. In many ways Picabia represented the public face of Dada, regularly exhibiting at the official salons in Paris, which he taunted through his use of highly unconventional materials, a characteristic exemplified by the Bergman work.

The tipped matchsticks, of which there are three different styles in the Bergman collage, convey with precision the prinked and permed appearance of a fashionable woman of the time. Dada's relationship with fashion is intriguing and unexpectantly multifaceted. 

The other version of this work, Match-Woman II, formerly in Breton's collection and dated 1924/25 can easily be distinguished from the Bergman version by the pendant on the woman's necklace, signaled by a larger coin. In this second version, the arrangement of matches and white highlights gives the impression of lonfer, more disorderly hair; the figure's head is also shorter and slightly wider. Most significantly, the face and neck are outlined with thick lines of light blue paint.

What aesthetics are used in animation for political themes and propaganda?

How do aesthetics and style reflect the content, function and audience of animation using imagery and themes?

Political views and contexts represented in animation through imagery and themes.

How could the images be used to interpret your theme/question?
Triangulate with theorists and critics?

(major imagery input is scanning in the book, The making of, Pink Floyd, The Wall)

Case studies - images, examples, phenomena have you found relating to your project - how do they link together? Triangulate? (Use at least 4 examples - images, stills, links to animations)

LAUAN501 - Study Task 2 - Reading and understanding texts.

Study Task 2 - Reading and understanding texts. (Task)

Proto question basis
Themes, concepts, and ideals communicated in British politics through animation and cartoons in relation to economics, propaganda, and socialism.

(Juliet B. Schor, 2000, The Consumer Society Reader, New York, New Press, Pages 190-191.)

(quotes, page 59, 'the ideological genesis of needs', 'From Symbolic Exchange To Sign Value. 'The Consumer Society' - READER, Edited by Juliet B. Schor and Douglas B. Holt.)

"It is from the (theoretically isolatable) moment when the exchange is no longer purely transitive, when the object (the material of exchange) is immediately presented as such, that it is reified into a sign."

"The sign object is neither given nor exchanged: it is appropriated, withheld and manipulated by individual subjects as a sign, that is, as coded difference."

“Our civilization is first and foremost a civilization of means; in the reality of modern life, the means, it would seem, are more important than the ends. Any other assessment of the situation is mere idealism.”

Concepts/Research:
What I have gathered from this text is that products or, material, is signified as a currency for the globalist government regime and this is a currency formed form capitalism for mass production for a consumer driven society.
This quote applies to the British government, the 'material' product can be applied to all forms of capitalism, not just produce but education (relating to Pink Floyd, The Wall), jobs, and future political investment.

Politics in consumerism, as a means of control over a society
A social and economic order and ideology that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in mass production, planned obsolescence and advertising to increase consumer spending.
Consumerism is a luxury but it influences the minds of the poor and subjective population to follow society in a controllable trend, in some cases benefiting the government in economic long term spending trends, advertisement and, more recently, selling our private data.
Advertisement is a large contribution to influencing the poor and subjective, especially the middle class, spending more and consuming products or 'objects' that they would otherwise not need, without realising it, they are 'exchanging' with a system for socialism.

This is a good point for the focus of my imagery in the 'visual journal', based around symbolism and of the depicted legal 'Hammerskins' organisation (as seen in Pink Floyd, The Wall) and a consumer government.




Jacques Ellul - Author of the technological society, 1965, PROPAGANDA - The formations of men's attitudes, East Lansing Michigan, Knopf, pages 38-39.
"Propaganda must not only attach itself to what already exists in the individual, but also express the fundamental currents of the society it seeks to influence. Propaganda must be familiar with collective sociological presuppositions, spontaneous myths and broad ideologies"

“We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organised”

"Only if it rests on the proper collective beliefs will it be understood and accepted. It is part of a complex of civilisation, consisting of material elements, beliefs, ideas, and institutions, it cannot be separated from them"

Concepts:

Edward L. Bernays, 1928, Propaganda, California, H. Liveright, Page 37-38
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."

...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses.” 

Concepts:
The Consumer Society Reader, isn't exactly what I am looking for and doesn't quite fit, but I'm using it because there are some relevancy in the concepts in which the Reader describes, as examples of political or business capitalism over people, classes, and/or positions in society.

"(Notes still apply from research. What EXAMPLES, CONCEPTS are communicated by the author?
Can you find real world EXAMPLES that you feel follow this model of thought?
How can this theory be related to animation or your theme?
Use your understanding to write a summary, or create a research poster, visualisation relating to the main themes of your chosen text)."

LAUAN501 - Study Task 1 - Initial ideas - Critical Analysis

LAUAN501 - Studio Brief 1 2017

Studio Brief 1 - Critical Analysis

This brief is separated into two parts but will be assessed as a whole. As such, you will be assessed on your ability to organise and execute theoretical and practical research in relation to a single research question and a theme (note).

A completed diagram of research with you at the centre of your research. 

Present it how you wish – format – size – content – images and words.

Considerations(notes):

•What are your interests?

•What have you found out?

•How have you collected information?

•How can you extend your research?

•What planning might you need to do?  (Research diagram only)

(MYTHICAL CHARACTERS, PRACTICAL, and ENVIRONMENTAL are things which excite me as a concept artist and animator).
What I find interesting and most experienced in:
Digital media, cartoons, 2d, fantasy, graphic novels, graphic image making, comic books, narrative, character, 80s, 70s synth wave lyrical music. General anime themes also because they capture that graphic imagery and combine it with vintage aesthetics and drama (because of great background and character).

(Insert research diagram here, add nots and context based from diagram writing)




POLITICAL THEME CHOICE
A theme like politics interests me because it offers a stronger background for 2D cartoon animation, using symbolic characters, concepts and imagery. These are very broad ideas but they offer lots of opportunity for experimentation and development, which is what I am going for.

I can introduce through this political background a funny or serious plot narrative, unique narrative, and spin-off ideas, or serious outlook with a more meaningful message, while appealing to a wider audience.

Research and assumption
Looney Tunes (Daffy Duck) The Commando is a Warner Bros. cartoon in the Looney Tunes series released on November 20, 1943, and directed by Friz Freleng. It features the character Daffy Duck.

War against Germany, cultural significance, racially depicting the enemy in a comical humour, and allied cultural traits coming together as a combined force.

To do broaden scope (notes: blog for 2weeks): What interests from level 4 do I have, and identify 5 different animations (sources), and find 1 significant fact. 

1. Caravan Palace - Lone Digger - Animated music video.
This digital 2D animation features no outlines of any characters or background, something which I would like to improve on using colour. Also what I like about this video is how the various character groups are represented by anthropomorphic characters for different social groups but mostly because animal features inspires me more for style.

This is because my favourite type of design is largely influenced or featured with animal or creature characteristics, for added expressionism, also its very edgy.
Something I especially like about animal heads that could be related to politics is how you can't recognise the intention or emotional feelings the characters poses. Instead they seem very primal and instinctual but that depends on the style and media used, different creatures heads could be used for various political statements and have a deeper meaning.

2. Animal Farm, 1954 British-American adult animated comedy-drama film.

Studied in level 4 for essay triangulation  The message that this animated film conveys is that, "Stalin's regime is not only as bad as Jones's, but worse and more cynical," and Napoleon, "not only as bad as JONES but vastly worse".

Politically, the process of which the antagonist oppresses the protagonist and how they are manipulated and used against their will as a society under a controversial government, as seen in Animal Farm, the suffering and injustice, based on from a historical point of view.

Snowball (the main tyrannical figure) was presented as intelligent, dynamic, courageous, but most of all manipulative and through using these traits to further himself and his cause. Snowball is a, "fanatic intellectual whose plans if carried through would have led to disaster no less complete than under Napoleon".

These characteristics as seen under Napoleon dictatorship but most notably Hitlers nazi Germany and when the regime invaded Europe, the Government controlling, manipulating and executing the population for control.

(The Clash used an image from the film 'Animal Farm' on their 45-RPM single "English Civil War")

3. Then research one cultural event, what was happening at the time, and what's happening now (Research and assumption).

Political, cultural themes in animation 

Persepolis is a 2007 French-Iranian adult animated biographical film based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. This adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about her experience of growing up in Iran before, during and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, it’s almost hard to imagine animation not being used in such a gravely relevant way. The film recreates the deliberately flat, monochromatic elegance of Satrapi’s visual style. But more than just aesthetics, but a technique that shows more of the emotional response for the audience about the plots antagonistic oppressors based on cultural events on the protagonist.

A culturally significant animation, this film is based on the principles of culture and the acceptable norm against any indifference in society, from a political aspect, this film shows how socially, communities can be oppressed from cultural regulations and/or a corrupt regime.

4. Burn the Witch" music video based on a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 3 May 2016 as the lead single from their ninth studio album A Moon Shaped Pool (2016).

Burn the Witch, expressing a deep sense of dread and skepticism portraying a deliberately lighter tone than the song, with the colour pallet and stop-motion media but conveying darker themes using the light tone to mask the true intentions of the song and the message. 

An inspector is greeted by a town mayor and invited to see a series of unsettling sights, culminating in the unveiling of a wicker man. The mayor urges the inspector to climb into the wicker man, whereupon he is locked inside as a human sacrifice and the wicker man is set on fire. 

The political themes this animation conveys are more about society and community reacting against the political state of mind and creating a demonstration of each of the most controversial aspects of politics such as capital punishment, bias, unfair law and order, and corrupt government trails for justice. 

5. Watership Down is a 1978 British animated adventure-drama film written, produced and directed by Martin Rosen and based on the novel of the same name by Richard Adams. 

The political themes are based of exile, survival, heroism, leadership, political responsibility, and the 'making of a hero and a community' under oppression from a regime amongst a community.

In Watership Down, power comes in many forms, but it generally has one result: making others do what you want. The simplest form of power is just brute strength, even good rabbits aren't afraid to use force to get things done. 

6. Miami heat, Retro Wave - Animated music video - scenes from, Golgo 13 The Professional, 1983 anime.

Studied for environmental, setting and character research and experimentation
The most favoured scenes form this animated film/featured music video, are set in pristine retro settings and background, because most of my inspirations come from watching old school anime settings with vast open spaces and hot climates like Dragon Ball z; that share a general retro theme.

Cityscapes to desert, dry washed-out backgrounds usually for the fight scenes of the over powered characters, but this open space in the environment is inspirational for my creativity and also I imagine fast paced motion or exercise like training montage scenes, Cowboy bebop is also a huge inspiration of mine for a particular retro setting example.

Merely noted for the art and setting, these are important to me for the design and experimentation of ideas for medium, theme and character design.

The Miami scene is my most favoured with the retro style of appeal, or based in the 70s Florida itself, Vice City of the Grand Theft Auto was I big inspiration to me personally, also most 70's films like for example Beverly Hills Cop for the characters being more expressive to the retro style cars and funky attitude, music like hip-hop and synthesisers. Deadpan, aviators, 70's pinks and pastel retro suites.

LAUAN503 - Character & Narrative - Evaluation

Evaluation

Throughout this project I have felt comfortable with the amount of work being shared equally amongst the group and planning each section from, research, experimentation to development. This is mainly because of good planning and communication between all of us, we understood each others abilities based on style and worked out who should do certain roles and what would be most beneficial for our individual techniques, styles and preference, purely because we had the freedom to choose our roles.
At the start the group leader gave us reasonable tasks such as researching and designing props for environmental concept art, with lists of items to be created and designed, this was a freedom for our creativity and not limiting us to any specific roles or designs because we could influence the environment or characters design with our own style.
In the experimentation phase we each had a character that we had designed and influenced in our own way, within reason of the overall plot they would be animated in. That character was then ours to animate because of how much it would represent our own individual styles in the development and production part of the project.
This production technique worked well for everyone because it played into our own abilities and strengths as a group so we could produce something which we all enjoyed and wanted to create without any strict designs or plot points, it was a fun project for all of us.

What we could of improved on would probably be the managing of the work flow, because we originally had a much longer animation story which would have had the duration of one minute and thirty seconds. At the time we did not think about the amount of work that would have been required of us, and that it would have dramatically cut back on the overall quality of the animation, to stretch over the full duration in time. We had to cut the final story in half so that we could focus on the special effects, character animation and backgrounds, lucky our group leader realised this relatively early in the experimentation stage.

During the Post Production the audio worked really well and I managed to create lots of really well segmented audio sounds in the final animation, following each characters interaction with the environment and most importantly the magical special effect in the animation. These techniques, like many others which I had developed in first year, also walk cycles and blocking out colouring all applied to this project, proving a very efficient production of the final animation and I feel that I have defiantly pulled my weight in the group.

Overall, creating ideas and influencing on the final product by managing the group cohesion, when styles and art techniques link members to one another or oppose each other, is really important, nobody wants to be working toward something that they feel doesn't convey their own style and will always untimely be more work than pleasure and one thing I've learned is that animation lives in inspiration and energy.

LAUAN503 - Post Production - Final animation and Audio (Weekly blogs 2)

Post Production - Generate your final video sequence, including any visual effects and complete with audio.



Visual effects and Audio

Audio was my job in this group

Using the 'Freesound.org' website for plagiarism free and community produced audio sound effects for each, environmental, character or background (sound tune for tension) music, footsteps and effects like fire and the magic spells.



It was relatively easy to search for the best quality audio for the specific sound that was required for the finished animation, although some sounds were harder to find such as a rat scuttling and scratching, so I used a technique that I had learned in 1st year. That was to improvise with other sound effects, usually by combining them together and creating a new sound from it. Representing other sounds with different sound effects is relatively easy if you imagine what sounds share similar qualities and frequencies.
Diegetic sound is a noise which has a source on-screen. They are noises which have not been edited in, for example dialogue between characters or footsteps. Another term for diegetic sound is actual sound.

Audio research/notes
Non-diegetic sound is a noise which does not have a source on-screen, they have been added in. For example music, voiceover, sound effects.


Think about:

Where is is set?

When is it set?

Who is in it?

What’s happening?

Mood and tone?

Visual style?

LAUAN503 - Study Task 5 - Walk This Way

LAUAN503 - Study Task- Walk This Way


Using this Richard Williams walk cycle as reference helps with the posture for the Moom
model because of how accurate the cycle is drawn, setting the tempo, the flow and contact and repeat on the opposite side.

There are 5 poses in one step of a basic walk, this image shows the full cycle and repeating on opposite poses towards the end.

Contact

Down

Passing

Up

Opposite Contact - Reflect previous poses on corresponding frames.

Adding the reference image.

'View', 'image plane', 'insert image' and choosing the image. Then scaling it and transforming it around.

One of the hardest things that I have had to overcome on Maya was coordinating around with the view tools. Using Mac key commands compared to windows and overcoming the 'cmd' mouse keys. Once I had done this the rest was easy to learn and adapt to.

Once the first 5 posing fames had been saved on the timeline, the next hardest part of the task was to manually copy each value across on the opposite controls which involved screenshots of each value of decimal points (which had been simplified and cancelled down) but still was really difficult to keep track of.

Through the struggling I managed to complete the study task and I know in the future, when I revisit this software I will find more efficient techniques to animate with than my current ability as a 2nd year.

LAUAN503 - Study Task 4 - Talk This Way

Study Task 4 - Talk This Way

'The lip sync is an important part of any animation that contains dialogue'

Creating the drawings for the lip-sync frames was interesting because I had to experiment with what mouth conveyed the most emotion or expression, using photoshop, I digitally drew the lips, tongue and teeth with detail and features that could show more exaggeration in expression such as grin lines and other facial expression lines.

Listening to the audio file was interesting and matching each frame 'phoneme pose' shape to the track, this was defiantly my favourite study task because of how surreal the mouths seemed when matched successfully with the audio clip and how that showing expression through animation constantly amazes me. This, I feel is defiantly a fundamental skill for myself to look into personally.

On a technical side I feel that with using this 'phoneme pose' sheet I can in the future create my own lip-synced animation, using this for reference, as well as using some of Richard Williams' original mouth poses drawings.

Preston Blair phoneme series, Researching the contemporary phoneme pose shapes.

'Each pose is setup entirely with muscle level control point changes, no bones involved. The top set of teeth stay in a fixed location for all poses, this locks the upper jaw to the characters skull. If you don't, you'll end up with a set of false teeth...
...depending on the feature set of your chosen software, a beneficial technique can be to create a low level set of poses relating to the underlying muscle movement of a face.'

I researched about the 'Preston Blair Phoneme series' to find out about the mouth design, I found out to add some asymmetry, which means to avoid having parts that are the same, or similar features in each face. In other words, to have each mouth expression uniquely drawn for more personality.

The images here are devoid of personality so as to show each phoneme clearly. This is a bad thing for a real dialogue performance, so make sure you liven up your characters with asymmetrical expressions so I have decided to add detail in my digital line drawings of each mouth.

Drawing the mouth frames in Photoshop

After Effects work screenshots
I chose to give the 'phoneme pose shapes' some detail and colour them to look like a goblin since the main project features Gobbs the Goblin.