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Week 6 - Animation Progress

In order to add some more context and depth to my animation I researched some different sound effects that may be appropriate to my animation.

I wanted to start my animation with a bit of applause as Kiri Te Kanawa is a very famous opera singer and it is normal for applause to occur when a theatre show is about to begin. I chose an audio clip that sounded like 30-50 people clapping as I felt this best represented a theatre-sounding applause. It was really important to me that the applause sounded like a authentic theatre applause rather than concert-sounding applause.

The second audio clip I chose to add to my animation was an opera song called "O Mio Babbino Caro" by Giacomo Puccini, Kiri Te Kanawa, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir John Pritchard. I used this audio to close my animation as I felt it best summed up Kiri and her amazing talent that lead her to her impressive career.

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Week 5 - Animation Progress

After receiving feedback from Lesley I had a play around with the gaps in the speech, like the sound of her breath and the quiet murmurs. I felt by softly adding these into the animation it made the whole thing feel more natural.

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Week 5 - Animation Progress + Feedback

In class today we had a small tutorial and then we were allowed time to discuss and receive feedback on what we have done so far with our animations.

This class ended up being a lot more stressful than it needed to be. During my discussion and feedback session with Lesley, I was trying to present my animation when I accidentally clicked a random button in After Effects that turned the entire screen black. We then both spend 15-20 minutes trying to figure out what happened and how to return it to normal. This caused me a lot of anxiety as I was very worried there was a possibility of me having to start my animation over from scratch again.

The middle button was the button I pressed^

Feedback wise Lesley was very helpful. We both agreed that my speaker Kiri Te Kanawa speaks very fast which makes the animation a little hard to follow. Lesley gave me some great tips on how to still include all the words but in a way that is easy for the audience to read. I will be taking her feedback on board and hopefully, I can follow through.

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Larken - Chosen Typeface

Larken is an Adobe typeface with 14 fonts in its type family. I chose this typeface as I wanted my type in this animation to represent elegance, poise, and sophistication just like Kiri Te Kanawa. I believe Larken ticks all those boxes as it is a serif typeface with very thin and clean lines which makes it pretty and soft without having to be cursive or hard to read.

I have mainly been using Larken thin, thin italics, regular, and regular italics. This is because I don't want to overpower my animation with bold lettering, so instead I have decided to use the regular weight to emphasize certain words or phrases.

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Week 4.2 - Animation Progress

After losing most of my animation with my laptop dying I have been working hard to catch up to where I was in order to produce my animation on time.

I have been experimenting with the motion in which my type moves around the page. For instance, in my speech, Kiri Te Kanawa says "But it didn't quite turn out to be...". I wanted to experiment with the word turn and actually make it turn or spin as it appears on the screen.

At first, I began moving the word in a spinning motion using scale and position...but after learning how to use the animate effects presets I thought I would change my tactic and use a spin in effect. I found this to be a cleaner alternative to my first method.

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Week 4 - Animation Progress

After week 4's class tutorial, I felt reasonably comfortable with the skills I had learned and felt confident enough to apply them to my own animation. After completing 30 seconds of my animation my laptop died and wiped all the progress I had made that day. This set me back, as I basically had to start my animation from scratch. I was unable to 100% recreate the work I had previously done, but nonetheless, I continued working at a swift pace in order to not fall behind with my progress.

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Week 5 - AE Effects & Presets

I found these effects are quite cool because I think they can potentially enhance my animation and make it more interesting. However I do have some concerns about using these effects as some may make my animation look tacky and take away from the sophisticated look I want to achieve.

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Week 4 - AE Bouncing effects

I really enjoyed learning how to create this bouncing effect using scale and position to stretch and squash the images in order for it to actually feel like the images are bouncing instead of just moving up and down.

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Background Textures

I've been looking into using a background textures for my animation. I feel that because Kiri Te Kanawa is known for her Operatic voice I should have a background that enhances the feel and tone of her and her talent.

This background reminds me of old sheet music paper that has been aged and stained over time. I feel this will enhance the over all look and feel of my animation.

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Week 4 - AE Composition test

Making this composition taught me a very simple yet effective way to show fast type. This tutorial also showed me how to import drawings from other Adobe programs along with all the image layers which can be a very helpful and effective way of creating an interesting animation.

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Week 3 - Class tutorial

Today in class we learnt how to import different images and layers from other programmes such as Photoshop and Illustrator. We also played around with different movement and colour techniques. I found this class to be very helpful and easy to follow.

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Storyboard

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Transcribed Text

I certainly thought I was born with something, but it didn't quite turn out to what it ended up to be, but I think as everyone said the harder you work the better I got and as I've gone through this hold four decades now I look back and I think oh my goodness it was unbelievable hard work, and I'm very grateful for all the people who gave me these opportunities, but I am also thrilled to be able to say that every inch of hard work there, there was nothing but pleasure in it. I really really enjoyed even the worst times which was sometimes a cold or flu, throat problems you know just, just getting through performances.

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Typeface Research

For this project I want to find a typeface that really represents Kiri Te Kanawa as a person as well as a performer.

Dame Kiri became famous for her beautiful operatic style singing voice. Therefore I think a Serif typeface would best represent her and her legacy. Opera itself had begin to take Europe by storm in the 1600's - 1750's, and was a spectacular and expensive affair. I do believe serif typefaces best represent expensiveness and luxury, especially when set around this time frame. However Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has quite a soothing speaking voice and therefore I think I need to use a serif typeface that is dainty, light and creative at the same time in order to represent all her attributes.

Typeface exploration examples.

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10 Interesting facts about Kiri Te Kanawa

1. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa in Downton Abbey 

On Sunday 6 October 2013, Kiri Te Kanawa makes her name as a Downton star, playing Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba. She apparently reduced the cast and crew to tears during rehearsals.

2.  Kiri Te Kanawa's name

Dame Kiri was born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron in Gisborne on New Zealand's North Island. She was adopted by Māori parents Thomas and Nell Te Kanawa.

3. Gold record in New Zealand

She's one of New Zealand's finest musical exports: her recording of the Nuns' Chorus from the Strauss operetta Casanova was the country's first gold record.

4. No audition required

Dame Kiri impressed the London Opera Centre in 1966 - so much so, that she enrolled without an audition to study under Vera Rózsa and James Robertson. Her teachers noticed her gift for captivating audiences, despite her initial lack of technique.

5. Countess at Covent Garden

Dame Kiri was offered the role of the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro at Covent Garden in 1971, after a wildly successful audition. Conductor Sir Colin Davis said: "I couldn't believe my ears. I've taken thousands of auditions, but it was such a fantastically beautiful voice."

6. Royal wedding singer

Dame Kiri performed Handel's Let the Bright Seraphim at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.

7. Honorary degrees

Dame Kiri's received honorary degrees from the universities of Bath, Cambridge, Dundee, Durham, Nottingham, Oxford, Sunderland, and Warwick. She's also quite the international honorary academic, with further degrees from the universities of Chicago, Auckland and Waikato.

8. Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation

Not only is she a legendary opera star, she's determined to support young singers in their path to greatness. She founded the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation with the vision "that talented young New Zealand singers and musicians with complete dedication to their art may receive judicious and thoughtful mentoring and support to assist them in realising their dreams."

9.  Kiri Te Kanawa's royal audience

Kiri performed at the opening of the Commonwealth Games in 2006, singing Happy Birthday to Her Majesty the Queen herself.

10. Classical BRIT Awards Winners

Honoring her international success, Dame Kiri picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Classical BRIT Awards in 2010. It's just one of a handful of prestigious honours and awards: as well as being made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to opera, she scooped a Grammy for Best Opera Recording in 1984 for a disc of Mozart.

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Week 8 - After Effects beginner tutorial

In this tutorial, we learned and practiced how to move both an object and type around in after effects using layers and transformation tools.

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Kinetic Type Animation Introduction

Introduction task : Download audio speech and research the speaker and transcribe the information.

My speaker: Kiri Te Kanawa (track28)

" I certainly thought I was born with something, but it didn't quite turn out to what it ended up to be, but I think as everyone said the harder you work the better I got and as I've gone through this hold for decades now I look back and I think oh my goodness it was unbelievable hard work, and I'm very grateful for all the people who gave me these opportunities, but I am also thrilled to be able to say that every inch of hard work there, there was nothing but pleasure in it. I really really enjoyed even the worst times which was sometimes a cold or flu, throat problems you know just getting through performances."

Research: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a retired New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". She was born on the 6th of March 1944, making her 79 years old today. Kiri hit stardom in the 1970's when she appeared in a series of performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and London. Her first big success though was as the Countess in Mozarts's "The Marriage of Figaro" in 1971 when she was 27 years old.