Convergence Divergence

Sound workshop with Chris Reed

Chris Reed (from the paper cinema company) kindly came in to uni and did a sound workshop with us to get us a bit more familiar with a bit of software for our current project. It was great fun actually and a lot less daunting then I expected. I brought in my trusty casio and it became the main event. We used it for creating most of the sounds for the video, as well as including a few sounds from the website 'freesounds'

Jonny was the mastermind behind pretty much all of the video in the end

Friday Trip

Going up to London this friday to have a look at the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy.
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hockney/

Hopefully whilst I'm up there I'll be able to go and have a good look in the Natural History Museum. It's such a fantastic place. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/library/index.html

Examples of stop frame animation

I have been reading a few books relating to stop frame animation, and though it's a very time consuming process I think it will be my preferred method of working. The beauty of this sort of method is it naturally creates shadows from the textures used in the model making/paper cut out which therefore adds a layer of depth to the work.

So a few examples I have been looking at:

NHM response two

I sent out two emails to different sections of the museum. Happily they both responded really quickly. However it was a bit of a long shot to ask them what they would look for in an educational animation?

Dear Katie,

Many thanks for your email and interest in the Natural History Museum. Whilst we do have scientist based in the museum who research bees, we unfortunately do not set industry standards for scientific illustration. Your enquiry may be better received by an organisation that specialises in scientific illustration standards. You may also find useful publications within your university library that provide guidance on illustration standards.

Good luck with your project.

Kind regards,

Natural History Museum Press Team

Natural History Museum

Well the Natural History Museum got back to me incredibly promptly, which is great. However, sadly I wasn't given any specifications as to the type of thing they would look for within an informative animation. But it's always worth asking!

Dear Katie Macon,

Thank you for contacting the Natural History Museum.

Unfortunately, I can’t answer your question directly. I wouldn’t choose what to include in your work of art. I believe you should decide what message you need to convey to your audience, and then make your choice based on the known facts about honeybees. I recommend using a library or a thorough Internet research for scientifically accurate information about honeybees. There are many books published by beekeepers so you should find this kind of information even in council libraries of freely on web sites.

You can also visit our library at the Museum: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/library/index.html but this kind of research would take more than we are allowed to spend on an individual routine enquiry, so it would be better if you could do it yourself.

I’m sorry to disappoint you by not answering your question as such, but I hope that this bit of advice will be useful.

Best wishes,

Florin Feneru