Friday, 27 November 2015

Fictional Maps

From looking at maps I felt it might be suitable to look at fictional maps as well, as they have similar characteristics to original old maps. However with a fictional map they need a different form of planning as they need to fit with the narrative.

For the Game of Thrones programme they animated the map for the title sequence. Like the old drawn maps, they include icons to help label a place so it is understood where they are. They would also include names on the sea, rivers and places.






Another fictional map is from The Lord of the Rings. Like Game of Thrones, this map follows the old style of maps. However I have noticed that the two fictional maps aren't cluttered like the old maps which are full of illustrations and writing. Is it because they have a different purpose?
Such as they want the readers to clearly understand and follow the map so they know where characters and places are.




Wednesday, 25 November 2015

Symbols and Signs

An image can be used worldwide and understood by anyone in any language. There is now over 20,000 symbols across the world in all areas such as, geography, biology, traffic etc. It is needed for these symbols to create a better, faster understanding for anyone to help break down the language barrier and not have something written in all the different languages. For instance it can also stop danger: a skull and bones mean poison. Also symbols can be put on small things that can't fit words, such as buttons, and need to be quick to read, such as road signs.

Semantography was created by C.K Bliss and is a complete system which crosses all language barriers. It can be typed up on an IBM typewriter and operates about 100 basic symbols which can be combined for any meaning needed - a bit like Chinese writing/characters.

Otto Newath (1882-1945) believed that pictures work better than words when it comes to communicating. I agree with this statement as images are understood universal, whereas words are only understood when you know the language. He created symbols called ISOTYPE (International System Of TYpographic Picture Education) that are used to 'translate complex figures into a form that would be both accurate and meaningful to a broad audience, he devised not only a series of refined pictograms, but also the techniques for their design and application'. He created the pictograms using texture, colours and blocked outlines to help people relate and understand.
Otto Newath
Otto Newath







Other Symbols


These symbols of the vehicles are really easy to recognise and you won't need the labels underneath them to understand.



These symbols however are extremely simplified and would probably need a key to help people understand them.



I could use symbols like this in my work to represent rivers as they are informative and clear.




For grass its a bit hard to know by its self, but if it was put with other things such as trees and more grass then it would much more clearer to what it is.



These are more textures which would need a key to help the audience to understand it.


Snow using asterisks. More asterisks = more snowfall/ heavy snowfall



A common symbol for representing water: two wavy lines.


Common symbol for sun and clouds. Use similar ones in weather reports on television.



Skeleton like tree but clearly states that it's a tree and also the kind of tree.



From looking at all these different symbols I now have a better knowledge on how to create my own. I would like to keep them simple, full of information and easy to read but I also want to show a bit more personality to them as they'll be hand drawn, like an old map.



Symbol Sourcebook by Henry Dreyfuss

Weather App

Click on the link to be taken to the weather app ---> http://deepdrizzle.net/weather-falmouth-shannon/

Map Research

Mapping has been used for hundreds of years and has gradually become more and more accurate the more human beings travelled and discovered. The map we have today is the most accurate thanks to satellites, but I find it more interesting how people in the past thought the world looked like.

Some maps were drawn on animal skin, such as the map made by the Chukchi people which was made on sealskin. The symbols on the map were used to represent activities, for instance there are boats and people farming.

In medieval maps there is a depiction of spatial relationships between landmarks such as rivers, islands and mountains. This is an medieval map of the holy land by the Genoese Pietro Vesconte who also provided plans of Arce and Jerusalem. The map the map is circular suggesting that they just focused on a section. It is also decorated with writing and colour, making it aesthetically pleasing as well as informative to the reader of the time. The fictional map of The Lord of the Rings called Middle Earth holds a similar style to the medieval maps with how they include mountains and symbols that represent certain places.

Dating from the Tang dynasty era (618-906 BCE), this is a Chinese star chart of the night sky on the northern hemisphere. It is divided  into 12 sections according to the stations of Jupiter. Like the medieval map, as a drawing it is pleasing to look at.

This world map was made in 1459 by Fra Mauro who was commissioned by Alfonso V.King of Portugal. It's incredibly confusing and I can't really see what's meant to be what. However, it's extremely decorative and stunning to look at. It is probably because it's for the king why it is embellished with gold. Again there is a use of a circle - is it a good way of framing?

The Babylonian world map from around 600 BCE is very different to the last world map. Its only similarities is that it's drawn in a circle and is decorated. This map is carved in stone and has kept with very basic shapes to represent things. It shows the relationship between the Babylonion world and the legendary regions that are beyond the oceans - is it spiritual?

The Hereford Mappa Mundi was made in the 1290s. It includes the Holy Land in the centre and is highly decorative with small icons representing places, sentences and a circular border. Having the Holy Land in the centre shows that the map and the people who wanted the map are religiously focused.

In 1360, a map of Britain was made by Gough and was name the Gough map. The east of Britain was the most accurate, whereas the west was rather mis-shaped. Scotland on the other hand was completely inaccurate. The map might of been used for official use as it gave an effective route map. I think that the west and Scotland might of been hard to map as there are more fields and hills so it might of been hard to measure the distances between things - not enough spatial relations.

The Catalan Atlas from 1375 was the most accurate of it's time. It used information from Marco Polo who visited Africa and Asia. Like other maps of its time it still included lots of biblical references from the bible in its illustrations. The illustrations would follow the edges of the land, changing its direction. Even in the oceans it had illustrations.


Here's a map of America made in 1686. It's full of colour and different colours are used to separate countries. The illustrations are very strong as they used both reality and mythological subjects: ships, sea monsters and  Poseidon. Like the other maps it is very decorated. In this map it also charts the sea and includes lines coming from compasses and also a black and white line for the equator. Also, to add to the chaos there are small paragraphs of writing put all around the map. Is writing a decoration?


The map of Europe which was made in 1554 by Mercator however, it a lot more clearer to read as it is a lot less crowded compared to the 1686 American map. It does however include small illustrations such as mountains, trees and waves. I quite like the writing which labels the sea and countries, making it informative, which is its main purpose at the end of the day.


World Chart by Martin WaldeemΓΌller made in 1516, is the only printed version of the world sea chart. The map is put on graph squares and there are formal blocks of writing. Compared to the other maps this has a limited amount of unnecessary illustrations, however it is still present but mainly on land. Could be to do with how this is a sea chart map, so it would need to be informative on the ocean. Features of this map that I like is the darker shade of blue that frames the land: seperates land and sea better.


A continuous thing I have come across in 'The Charting of the Oceans' will be the decorative compasses that are put on the oceans. Sometimes they use the same one across the map, but others would have different ones. The compasses would be used to start the lines across the oceans but not all lines have a compass. In the West Africa map by Linschoten in 1596 They use both examples of using compasses and not having compasses.

In the Atlantic Coast of Portugal map, made by Van Keulen in 1682, there are mainly no compasses. However I did find it interesting how the lines managed to create an optical illusion. I could maybe try and attempt this my self.

Another optical illusion style map is The Arctic by Blaeu in 1662. This time the lines are curved creating another kind of geometric design. This would indeed need a compass to recreate.



From doing my research on maps that already exist, I have many ideas for what I can now do for primary research. Such as using the modern day map but having the old map features like compasses, illustrations and colour. I'll also be trying to find ways to link symbols of extreme weather to the map aswell,so looking at the illustrations they use on maps have helped me get some idea.










Visions of the World: A History of Maps by Jeremy Black
The Charting of the Oceans: Ten Centuries of Maritime Maps by Peter Whitfield

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

Gifs For Weather Forecast

 Cloudy with sun

 Windy

 Storm

 Overcast

 Rain 

 Sunny

 Fog


Monday, 23 November 2015

Climate Change

As I wish to focus on weather and mapping I decided it would be best to look at a book which explains climate change and what the world will be like in the next few hundred years. The book is rather scientific so I struggled understanding the majority of it due to the key words that were used,but I did find it somewhat informative.

In the book it explains how climate change is a typical thing for our planet to do, in fact we are unsure of the Earth's history due to climate change. It says that 50 million years ago the world was largely or entirely ice free and the last time CO2 levels were high was 50-100 million years ago, before the planet cooled itself down. "This dramatic regional cooling would occur in a world experiencing overall warming."

What makes the CO2 levels increase is of the human race burning fossil fuels. From the large amount of CO2, it creates Global Warming which then causes the melting of polar  permafrost. It is theorised that the more the CO2 levels go up there will be an expansion of trees into the 'now-frozen' north, and also over the next several thousand years the excess CO2 will make the seawater more acidic. For my idea of drawing a future world map, I can possibly draw trees in the North pole and the current forests all chopped down.

The retreating of sea ice has already begun, but will most likely take hundreds of years to melt the deeper sub surface permafrost.The melting of the ice will lead to the global rise of the sea level in the future. Over a century, it will increase by a foot. "Some projections put the rise by this time at 1 to 2 meters, enough for sea water to flood a kilo meter or more into flat, low lying coastal regions". From reading this I have an idea of flooding the map so it wouldn't look the same as it is now; the United Kingdom will probably be covered quite a bit in water, and countries will look thinner (maybe more islands).What makes the CO2 levels increase is of the human race burning fossil fuels.
The melting of ice also endangers habitats of polar bears and the rest of the polar ecosystem.

There is also a concern to people moving to the coast as it makes them very vulnerable to typhoons and hurricanes. Scientists have suggested that there will be an increase in hurricanes due to global warming, but this prediction is somewhat speculative. Also because of the climate getting warmer it could increase more frequent and widespread tropical diseases.

There is apparently a way to help prevent the amount of greenhouse gases, by pumping the CO2 emissions into the ocean. However, it would cost way too much money as not all factories are by the coast. Because we are so focused on the cost of things rather than what they can do for the planet and people, this will never happen (my thought anyway).

From reading this book to get a basic idea on climate change, I now know more on it and how it could help with my work: higher temperatures, hurricanes, floods. So now I know how I can document my future world map,





Earth's Climate, Past and Future by William F. Auddiman

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Animating the turtle


I'm now starting to animate the turtle which means my animation will soon be coming to an end- finally!

When it comes to drawing a character (fishes and the turtle) or a setting (the corals) I would draw the whole thing out on a layer and then copy and paste adjusting it to the frames I want it in. So for instance, for the corals I separated them into two drawings as I wanted to track the scene, and then I would gradually move the drawing until it's either on or off the screen. The more there is the longer it takes to draw, so the corals and the turtle took a while to do, whereas the fishes took seconds.

There are a few flaws that I've purposely made due to the lack of time I have left, such as the bubbles are repeated over and over even when the screen is tracking right, whereas in reality there would be new bubbles instead of ones that follow the screen.

My next steps are now to make the turtle swim up and over so we look at its belly - just like the video I took at the aquarium.

Now at 102 Frames!


Still haven't started the turtle yet but I'm almost there. However I have no noticed that the file is starting to get a lot bigger and is struggling to save and export without freezing, so I'm hoping that it'll still work when I animate the turtle. I might however not be able to animate the whole thing because of how it's struggling to save but I'm hoping to get at least three seconds of it swimming over. I also might try and make a transition back to the start if I have time so it would have a clean loop.

Shark

Because I'm incredibly happy with my shark I've decided to make a gif of just it on repeat to see how it would look by its self. From all the fish I've animated so far the shark is the only one which looks rather natural. This would be because I managed to film plenty of footage of the shark swimming around at the aquarium. How I could of done better however would of been to make more frames to make it move slower as I feel like it's moving a bit too quickly. Also making more frames would of made it swim smoother. I'm hoping that when it comes to animating the turtle that it would be just as successful as this and not as rubbish as the green fish.


Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Finally at the bottom of the sea


I've now reached the bottom of the sea for my animation, meaning that I'll be soon animating the turtle and so I'm almost finished ready for Thursday for my presentation. I've also managed to make a few more adjustments such as changing the speed of the sea again and also the green fishes tail. I also adjusted the blue fish's fins to make them move and appear a bit more natural.
I am struggling with the beach scene as I don't think I've done enough frames to make it run smoothly - I won't have enough time to go back to it and make more frames.

Practising Stop-Motion


Because I was so inspired from reading the chapter on stop motion in 'The Alchemy of Animation' by Don Hahn, I decided to give it a go. I found it very challenging to make it run smoothly as my figure isn't very steady, so it easy wobbled when I went to adjust it. Also I didn't have enough time to take loads of frames so it's a bit jumpy. Ideally, I would love to make a flawless stop-motion but the lack of time and equipment is stopping me. If I have any more time after I try and complete my main animation I'll try and do some more small stop-motions.

Monday, 2 November 2015

Animating Shark


From my dodgy animation so far I am very happy with my shark. I thought it would be one of the hardest to draw but I was wrong. I'm actually finding drawing the fish to swim and look natural very difficult instead. This could be because they move their fins and tails quite delicately. I'm now at 77 frames and I still have plenty to do such as the corals and the turtle.

Saturday, 31 October 2015

Grouping Fish



Having a big group of fishes swimming was challenging to do as I did forget fishes some of the times. I'm happy that I'm now at 10 seconds but I still have loads to do as I next have to draw a shark, the corals and a turtle.

Making Fish Swim


It took me quite a few attempts to get the swimming right, as I couldn't get the shape right.


I tried it first with a back fin like this but it just looked as though it was waving up and down.


I then redrew the fin again so it was thinner and it works a lot better than the first attempt. It's still not perfect however and doesn't look too natural.

From looking at the videos I took I did realise that most of the fish barely move their tails but I wanted my fish to swim quickly so I added more force.


Trying to Make a Transition!


I found it so hard making a smooth transition: I believe that it'll require a bit more practise to perfect. This is because I had to make layered frames where I would gradually change to opacity of the image until it became a new image. I decided to make this faded in transition rather than the straight cut as I felt that going from one scene to another like that felt very out of place, despite the fact that they relate. I shouldn't need any more transitions in my animation thank goodness but I still need to make it flow throughout. 

Start of Main Animation


To save time from taking my frames to an IT room I've decided to test out Gimp's animation. It's rather different to photoshop as I couldn't have the timeline feature, so whenever I wanted to watch the animation I had to go through different tabs.




For help on animating using Gimp I watched this video. It's a bit long but was useful.