COP Research - Articles

I decided to look more into articles created over the past view years that relfect on how women are designed within animated features. I found that articles are a great source of modern viewpoints from young writers.

The Daily Dot - How Sexist video games animators keep failing - Aja Romano

http://www.dailydot.com/via/assassins-creed-gaming-sexism-also-about-animation/

I found this article when researching sexist stereotypes in animated features. I found this one interesting because of how the author focused mainly on the presentation of the characters, and how the overall features of the females characters haven't changed for years. There's an explanation where the author mentions how even though all the characters have vastly different personalities and storylines, they are still subjected to the overly exaggerated sexual appearance their animators/designers create. Even though this article is mainly about character design within computer games, I still feel the points made throughout is relevant to my essay.

Gender Representation within animation - http://fourthreefilm.com/2015/09/looking-from-the-outside-in-gender-representation-in-animation/ 

“women existing as a separate, codified entity, with a limited, often sexualised design and relatively narrow narrative role.” Describing the way that female characters are depicted. – Looking from the Outside In – “Gender Representation In Animation” Article by Tansy Gardam, September 3, 2015, Fourthreefilm.com




I found this article interesting in how the author focused mainly on modern animation, and how the role of women in animated features are often weak in narrative but sexualized in appearance. I feel like this quote could be related to both Peter Pan as well as The Little Mermaid, purely because both features, and original novels, contain females characters that have little to no lines in the film and often depend on overly exaggerated and sometimes sexual gestures in order to communicate e.g Tinkerbell/Ariel.

Why Children’s Cartoons Have a Sexism Problem. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikki-gloudeman/why-childrens-cartoons-have-a-sexism-problem_b_5924390.html  – 1-/06/2014, 05:30pm, Article by Nikki Gloundeman quoting Margot Magowan in 2012, Huffington Post. 

“Unfortunately, the reason that there’s no disclaimer and no introduction [about sexism] is because sexist stereotypes in kids’ cartoons are just as accepted in 2012 as they were sixty years ago. Sexist jokes in animation are, apparently, still hilarious.

I feel like this quote could support the argument that I want to make in my essay when I respond to how modern animation is still striving to create strong female character, but are failing due to the design aspect and also how the characters execute their actions in order to achieve goals. 

- “Researchers have found a major problem with “The Little Mermaid” and other Disney movies.”

Article written by Jeff Guo, The Washington Post, January 25  "The Little Mermaid” represented a backward step in the princess genre. For a film centered on a young woman, there’s an awful lot of talking by men. In fact, this was the first Disney princess movie in which the men significantly out spoke the women."

I feel like this quote would support the argument that even though animators and designers alike are constantly trying to create strong female roles within animations, it seems to be counteracted with the lack of progression in the balance between men and women roles throughout the animation process, as well as the feature itself. 

My Main focus with my essay is to focus on the body image as well as the representation of roles that woman are presented with having at that time, and also how the mind of children can be warped into thinking that certain ways to act from different stand points is acceptable.

Gender Representation

In my response, I have decided to create a storyboard/animatic of a concept based around a sexualised female character. This character will take on typical characteristics found in both the animated world and the real world. This combination will hopefully represent the standards that are set for women.

Betty Boop was created by Max Fliecher in 1930. She has been regarded as the first ever animated sex symbol. She was depicted as clumsy, ditsy and sexy. She was often animated working as a nurse or a dentist which often sexualised that specific practice. 

Jessica Rabbit is one of the main characters from the iconic animated feature Who's Framed Roger Rabbit. She is considered to be probably the most sexualised female cartoon character, and is extremely recognisable.

Over the course of this visual research, I have decided to base my main female character on these two iconic figures. 

In my essay I want to mainly focus on the female characters from Peter Pan as well as the main protagonist in The Little Mermaid. Wendy Darling, Tinkerbell and Ariel are perfect examples of female roles that are warped in a subliminal way, and clearly capture the sexism presented to the creators from that era. I also want to reference the original texts that the Animated Features are based off, purely because of how sexist and obscure the females are shown. 

COP - Evaluation

The Lecture programme for Context of Practice was helpful. I feel as though I have gained an understanding of various aspects of the history of the creative industry, and the progression of modernism. By gaining knowledge on these various topics, I have managed to shape my understanding of the meanings behind various art forms.

Even though I found these lectures extremely interesting and helpful, I found it difficult to relate them to animation on my own. I feel as though this is because I can close myself off to only explore certain aspects that peak my interest. I also felt as though a few of the lectures were far too complicated for me at times, and the few lectures I did not attend were difficult to find notes on. The on-line presentations were helpful in briefly understanding the topic, but further research was always needed for me to create strong notes on the subject.

My essay is something I feel I could have done better. A few weeks after handing in my first draft, I had come up with another concept of exploring what key features makes a character feminine or masculine. I would have used animations such as WALL-E to explore this idea. I think this concept would have given me a higher grade and understanding of gender roles within animation, rather than just focusing on the obvious roles in animation and how characters appear.

My practical response to my essay could have been better. I feel as though I focused a lot more on the message behind my aims, and not much on the practical, drawing side. I decided to do a storyboard instead of an animated response because I felt overpowered by my other projects at the time. I feel as though I could have polished and made my story board clearer, as well as refined my designs from sketches into clean images. I think I struggled with this because I'm still not yet used to using tablets to create images.

Overall, I enjoyed COP. I feel as though I could have organised my time better, and created more time for exploration within this module. With COP next year, I plan on creating meaningful bodies of polished and completed work, and also discovering what peaks my interest the most.

COP - Storyboard

Here is my final storyboard. I wanted to capture a stupid atmosphere in order to achieve a sarcastic tone.

The Story is set in a Cartoon town. With trees with faces and birds constantly chirping. My main character is seen skipping through the woods blissfully, until she hears a man's laughter. She stops in her tracks to stare at where the the sound is coming from.

She peers down into the hole in the tree to look at the world inside. This is meant to symbolise the "Real World". She urgently wants to become part of the world in order to be with the mystery man. This is meant to be ironic and link in with my essay. She pursues a witch to find a potion that will help her become part of this world. She drinks the potion, and her skin starts to bubble.

Her whole body melts and bubbles into a realistic body shape of a women. Her body is more in proportion and realistic. She then dives into the hole in the tree. 

My main aim in this storyboard/concept was to create a heavily ironic and simple story that resonates the strange standards that have been set by male animators and designers for years. Even though in the past decade, design and women in the animated creative process has evolved, there is still a long way to go, and famous and iconic animated features still portray women in a negative light to this day.

I feel like my storyboard could be more clear, and my hand writing could have been better. However I feel like I clearly showed what my story was about.

If I was to make this into an animation, I would have an exaggerated and whimsical atmosphere throughout. I would have the character bounce around, and act in an exaggerated way in order to capture the atmosphere that is present within a lot of animated feature films that are centred around female characters.

COP - Character Design

I decided to do a rough sketch of what my character would look like after her transformation. I referenced my research photos throughout to try and capture a curvy and true body.

I kept to my intial research and tried to portray the end result character to have a larger physique compared to her original form. I decided to give a slightly bumped nose, and crooked legs to link in with my insecurities research. I still find it difficult to used tablets when drawing digitally.

My next step is to create a storyboard based on my concept, capturing an ironic vibe in a short but effective storyboard.

COP - Story Concept

I decided to explore the ideas for my story. I knew that I wanted to create a heavily ironic and sarcastic story to accompany the research and sketches I have done.

I had an idea that my main female character would pursue a witch, and purchase a potion from her to change her appearance in order to fit in with the world that she wants to be a part of. I want to have a sarcastic element to my story. I aim to create a brief storyboard that explains the concept briefly.

COP - Lecture - Modernity and Modernism

From this lecture I was able to grasp the role of modernism and modernity in today's artistic society. Modern art in society today in usually a response to cities and the issues that surround the culture of the area. Modern art takes the form of photography, street art and graphic art pieces in today's society.

Here, I made notes on the lectures.

- Modern is something that is distinct and challenges classical art, often produced using technology or electricity.
-Modern art is a way of society exploring the world through modern technology and how problems become negotiable through technology.
-The Eiffel Tower was a symbol of modern art. Even though the structure was individual and contrasted the buildings of Paris, it somehow fit.
-The constant exploration of materials and colour theories through modern art of the 18th century lead to the development of "classical" art and individual work.

Modern day animation comes in the form of 3D animation. This technique is used in almost all modern animation of this era.

COP - Triangulating

1. Ken Garlands texts emphasises and explains the creative advertising industry in a appropriate way. He describes the process of creative advertisement as a means to "Flog" an individuals skills and imagination to sell mundane products. He goes on to explain that "The greatest time and effort of those working in the Advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes". The Adbusters manifesto supports this concept, by highlighting "The Profession's time and energy is used up manufacturing demands for things that are inessential at best." This concludes their opinions of creativity being wasted on mundane advertisements that are washed away. Tibor Kalman however, encourages the corrupt, creative advertisement industry. Kalman's solution to the issue is by finding "the cracks in the wall" and manipulating the few individuals that encourage expressive creative advertisement.

2. 29 ways to stay creative
This info-graphic aims to advise individuals to stay creative. Supposedly, following these simple tips can encourage a person's mind to be more creative. I chose this because it could correspond to Tibo Kalman's text. By finding ways to be creative, an individual does not have to feel like they have lost the meaning behind their creativity. By changes an individuals environment and social construct, a person can feel creative and stay true to their initial aims in their career.


3. "Fuck Committees"
This text brings to light the loss of value behind a creative mind, claiming that "all media, architecture, product and graphic design have been freed from ideas." Tibor Kalman expresses a sense of anguish towards the creative advertisement industry, and how "Architectual decision are made by accountants", creating a sense of creative loss in the industry, and how decisions are usually made with money in mind. This corrupted, creative industry holds importance in promoting products.

4. Ken Garland expresses how creative individuals have constantly been "presented" with the creative advertising industry, and how this industry is the most "lucrative, effective and desirable means of using our talents." Garland expresses a sense of anguish towards the creative industry, and how individuals' talents are "wasted on these trivial purposes." According to Garland, the creative advertisement industry is just "sheer noise", and in turn denotes an sense of pointlessness to being a creative advertiser.

Planning and Structuring an Essay

OUAN401 – STUDY TASK 3 – PLANNING & STRUCTURING AN ESSAY

To what extent does Animation construct our ideas of gender?

Which Academic Sources will you reference?

1. Include a Harvard Referenced bibliography of at least 5 sources.
2. Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. Harmondsworth: Penguin
3. Packard, V. (1957) 'Hidden Persuaders', New York
4. The Little Mermaid
5. Peter Pan 

I will also reference a few articles that argue the typical stereotypes that woman are presented with in modern animations.    

What Animation will you analyse?

1. The Little Mermaid
2. Peter Pan

I have chosen to analyse these two animations because of the female characters in the features. Tinkerbell and Ariel are mostly mute throughout the features, and through close analyses, stereotypes and strong views from the era which they were made shine through.

What Points will I make?

1. Discuss Berger's views of women in art forms - Compare to animated features and how females are presented
2. The roles which women play in typical animated features.
3. Focus mainly on the roles of men and women in the animation industry as well as their roles in animations.
4. The modern concept of the "American Dream" in animations, and the female equivalent.
5. How females are presented as objects throughout a narrative, because of their lack of voice.

I overall plan to discuss stereotypes related to how women are presented within animation.

COP- Systematic Colour Theory

Here are my notes on the lecture about Colour Theory.

Physical --- Physiological --- Psychological

Spectral colour - Evoked by a single wavelength of light within a visible spectrum. Every wavelength of light is a continuous spectrum.

Colour is contextual depending on the environment.

The human eye can be fooled into seeing a range of colours depending on the surroundings.

Primary ---- Secondary ---- Tertiary

- On colour relates to another
-Mixture of all colours create neutral colours.

Spectral colour - Eye can not differentiate the colour yellow.

RGB - colour mode - Displayed through screens. - Red, Green, Blue all mixed together makes white light.

CMYK - colour mode -Physical based.

Overall, from this lecture I have gained an understanding of the colour spectrum.

COP Lecture - Semiotics

The Aims of this lecture was to introduce the concept of semiotics and understand the basics of semiotic theory.

The idea of codes in semiotics is important. Codes are found in all sorts of cultural practices, and present various meanings. In order to understand and make sense of cultural artifacts, we need to understand the codes presented in various forms.

The concept that the Signifier = Sound image and that Signified = Mental theory was produced by Ferdinand de Saussure who was a Swiss Linguist. The theory consists of the knowledge that a sign has two parts. Signifier + Signified = Sign.

Visual images help people understand what message is trying to be portrayed. Using symbols and key images as a form of coding help advertisements present to people what it is they're trying to sell. The meaning of an image doesn't come from the image, but from the person themselves.

Overall, I found this lecture helpful, as I feel I have more of an understanding of Semiotics that I did before.

COP Lecture - Print Culture

Prior to Print Culture, Oral Culture was all that existed. Oral Culture eventually felt the need to store their words in order to document processes and messages. The Chinese invention of paper and woodblock printing produced the worlds first print culture. These are my Lecture notes summarised into bullet points.

-The age of print started in 1450
-John Martin broke the system as he never trained at the royal academy. He earned an extreme amount of money from hosting his own exhibitions.
- Schools of design were introduced in 1836, where students were taught pop culture. Art school was then made available for the middle class.
-Mathew Arnold wrote a book on Culture and Anarchy where he explained the meaning of culture. Culture is: "The best that has been thought and said in the world, The study of perfection attained through disinterested reading, writing and thinking.
- The technological reproduction of art removes a sense of creativity and authenticity of the work.
- Printing in modern society comes in the form of newspapers, posters and screen prints of work.

Overall, I feel as though this lecture was helpful in understanding the values that are lost when a piece of work is reproduced over and over again.

In an animation sense, using the process of print would be a good concept and technique for an animation. Repeatedly printing the frames through a printing process.

COP Main character design

I decided to focus on the initial research I did on Jessica Rabbit for my character design because of how she's the first character that springs to mind when people think of sexy cartoon character's. She is a character that has been sexualised for years and has been made into a sort of sex symbol. I also chose her for inspiration because I didn't want to stick with challenging the images of women that Disney has been notorious for doing.

Here I did a quick, initial sketch of the character. I referenced some images of Jessica Rabbit to capture her face shape and her physique. I attempted to dress her in modern clothes that reveal enough to be considered provocative.

My next step is to explore the basic shapes of my character because I aim to create some character design sheet for this character. I also aim to create some scenes for my story.

COP - Insecurities Research

Here, I sat down with a few of my friends and I asked them to think of what feature they're insecure about, mainly focussing on things that are down to genetics and can't be helped.

By doing this research, I have come up with the idea that my main character would change from a physically exaggerated looking woman into a young woman that has these ordinary features. 

I aim to create a character that looks a lot more human that she was in the first place, by giving her an ordinary shaped body and proportions, but not exaggerating her too much that it's insulting.

In relation to my essay, my main goal is to focus on body image as well as the role that women play in society. More importantly I want to demonstrate how important a woman's body image is in correlation to the pressure that certain standards cause. 

Cop - Body image - Using Pinterest.

My main source of images has been a website called Pinterest. This is because I believe it has a range of ideals that women strive for. It is a website that is aimed for the age range of about 18-25 y/o. Even though I only really use it for research and inspiration for designs, I still find a lot of promotion of a "Healthy Body and Life Style" from other blogs on my time line.

I decided to do a lot of my visual research for my project using Pinterest. However, I almost disagree with the images that are being shown. I researched a lot into what an average body would look like.

I initially typed in "Healthy body" but it came up with a load of recipes and work out routines. So I decided to type in "Plus Size Models". Obviously, most of the women that popped up weren't plus sized.

I decided to create some initial sketches from images that were actually of plus sized models.

I mainly focused on the over all shape of the women's body type. At the time I thought it was a good idea to explore plus sized body types, however after a couple of sketches I realised that I should really focus on the average body type of a women between the ages of 18-20.

Here, I continued to explore the weight and gravity of a plus sized woman's body. Even though the direction that I was going in with these sketches was a strong one, I have decided to shift my concept from focusing on the weight side of things, and focus on the negative connotations that women feel towards certain aspects of their body.

This image was inspired by 18th century art, and the body shapes of women. I like how this sketch turned out, and it would have been a good concept to explore, by having the characters in my story have an 18th century vibe to them. However, I now want to stick with the concept of developing and bringing to light what women of 18-20 y/o feel insecure about, and how animated features express a sense of negativity with certain features.

COP The Designer as Social Critic

"We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it." I feel as though this view on how advertising has shaped creative peoples mind is true in the sense that there is constantly inspiration in the form of advertisements on a day to day basis. Advertisement has become a way of artistic expression whereas years a go it was a way to pay the bills. In an animation sense, Animated adverts are being seen more and more throughout the years.

Animation can be a way of expressing and capturing corruption in society. This form of art can be a gateway to exploring views and society in a way that acting can't. Expressing opinions and sensitive subjects can be difficult, but the question of what can drive an individual to create such expressive bodies of work. It can be success or actually a social and political achievement at the end.

Throughout this lecture, I came to understand the importance of expressing messages and meanings within a body of artistic work. By creating a critical piece of work that analyses society and social construct, a sense of shaping viewpoints can be achieved, but like advertisements in today's society.

Post modernism

Modernism - Initially born out of optimism, an aspirational reaction to world war 1, with a view of harnessing technology to improve peoples lives. Modernism is associated with experimentation, art, innovation, progress, purity, Seriousness.

Post-modernism -  characterised by exhaustion, pluralism, pessimism, disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge.

Modernism can be viewed as an expression of modern life, technology and new materials, whereas, Post-modernism is a reaction to these. Post-modernism has an attitude of questioning conventions, especially those set out by modernism. It can indicate and space for "new Voices"

Consumerism Lecture

The aim of this Lecture was to understand the concept of consumerism, and how consumerism links with our subconscious desires.

Sigmund Freud - Freud explored the idea that people have hidden primitive sexual forces as well as animal instincts that he believed needed to be controlled. He believed that human's do not make decisions based on human nature, but based on our primitive instincts of sexual and violent desires dating from our evolutionary past. Freud had a lot of concepts and views on human's and society. In his book Civilization and it's Discontents, he explored the fundamental tension between civilization and the individual, and the correlation between human instincts and the well being  of the community. He also came up with the Pleasure Principle, and how human's strive for pleasure for the tempory satisfaction.

"Torches of Freedom" - Edward Berndays, who was Freud's nephew, was a propaganda officer during the war, and also involved with the press. Bernays was employed by cigarette companies to find a way to encourage young women to smoke in order to increase the sales of cigarettes, and fight societies view on how it was taboo for women to smoke. Bernays hired a lot of attractive actresses to walk around during a parade in New York, at at noticeable viewpoints, start smoking. The press photographed this, and eventually Bernays admitted that the women were actually suffragettes, and how the cigarettes symbolised a "Torch of Freedom" and a symbol for the women's independence.

The invention of celebrity endorsement - Playing on the influential mind of the public, Bernays set up a system where President Coolidge would be photographed with famous celebrities in order to change their views.

Henry Ford - Ford basically invented the mass production lines of today. However, the problem of this system is a threat of overproduction. Producing things constantly and giving society the opportunity to purchase these objects, leads to people quickly having everything and not wanting to buy anything any more.

Marketing objects in a way that creates a sense of desire rather than it feeling like a necessity was a huge shift in the marketing industry. By creating a sense of emotional security that links with products influences the mind to feel like it's a necessity, and would make that person more desirable or needed themselves.

Consumerism is still present in society today. Advertisements constantly toy with the concept that products are a stepping stone in making your life better.

COP- Mind Map

Here, I created a mind map to explain my initial idea. I decided to focus on the more iconic look of females, which is why I have chosen to take inspiration from Jessica Rabbit.

From the visual research I have accumulated so far, I have decided to focus mainly on the body image aspect of animations. I have decided to mainly focus of Jessica Rabbit because she is an iconic, animated sex- symbol.

My concept is to have a Jessica Rabbit-esque character fall in love with someone from the "real world." She then finds a witch to give her a potion that changes her appearance to fit with the real world that she wants to live in to be with her love. This "real world" transformation will leave her with a realistic body. 

The main character is going to resemble Jessica Rabbit because she is viewed as a recognisable sexualised, animated female.

My aim with this concept is to bring to light the irony of how women are depicted in classic animations. They are often presented as reluctant, "beautiful" and also quite dumb. I will probably create an animatic to go with my concept that involves some sounds and a little movement.

Visual research- animated Disney characters

Here, I decided to do some further visual research into animated women characters. I mainly focuses on researching Disney characters because my essay mainly focused on Disney representation of women in their animated features.

Aries is a heavily recognisable prescense in society still to this day. She is iconic, with her long, red, flowing hair and her large eyes. Her waiste is something that is a main focus of the character. Her waiste is slender and extremely thin compared to the real life, female anatomy. In my essay, I mention how this is a negative aspiration for girls. Her hair is an iconic feature, that many girls aspire to have, and it seems a lot more healthy to aim to have the long flowing hair than the tiny waist. 

Her facial features are iconic of Disney. The large eyes and large mouth are features that are used for almost all the main female Disney characters.

Belle from Disney's beauty and the beast has the same characteristics that are recognisable as Disney.  However, she is depicted as intellectual, by being represented walking around her town with a book.

Cinderella is portrayed as a mistreated young woman, who apparently needs materialistic objects to be seen as beautiful. In the feature, a fairy godmother comes along and makes her attractive by giving her a sense of wealth through clothes and her mode of transport to the ball for her to fall inlove. She is a young woman who is overlooked until she changes the way she looks to find "true love". This is a key theme and structure to Disney's Animated Features.

From this brief visual research, I have come to the understanding that the typical body shape that is features in Disney' iconic animated films are of a slim variety, with large eyes and mouth. The size of the slender character's bodies link in with the social media research I did earlier, where the bodies were very slim. These features are something I will consider when designing my female character. 

COP - Visual Research - ORLAN

I decided to do research into the French artist ORLAN. She is best known for her work with plastic surgery series that was called "The Reincarnation Of Saint Orlan" which started in 1990. The aim of the series was to transform herself through a series of plastic surgeries, taking inspiration and elements from various famous paintings and sculptures of women.

Orlan's aim was to accuire and represent the ideal of female beauty depicted by male artists. I find this concept interesting and powerful because it challenges the standard of body image that is set by society through the form of art, rather than the form of social media that society provides today.

Her images are terrifying, and offer an extreme insight into the lengths that people go to in order to achieve and chase the perfect image. She aimed to capture the chin of Venus by Botticelli, the nose of Jean-Leon Gerome's Phyche, the lips of Francois bouchers Europa, the eyes of Diane from French school of Fontainebleau and the forehead of Leonardo's Mona Lisa. She picked the features from these pieces of art "not for the canon's of beauty they represent but rather on account of the stories associated with them"

Even though Orlan's practice as an artist is extreme and often crazy, I enjoy her work. She challenged the images and features that are often perfected by male artists, and also managed to embrace these standards of beauty. A lot of classic art is considered beautiful and often focus around a woman.

I feel that Orlan's artwork is influential with my concept, and captures a sense of irony in a strange and thought provoking way. In one of my scenes for my storyboard, I was to have a strange and surreal part where the characters face morphes and contorts into what a realistic body looks like. I will refer to Orlan's pieces of work to capture the gruesome and bloody side of what women often chase to become perfect.

My next step is to review the body images represented in the animation that I mention in my essay.

Visual research - Social media

I decided to do some visual research into what the body standards of women is in society today. I decided to type into Pinterest the phrase "body goals" because as a 20 year old woman who is a frequent user of social media websites, it is a phrase that is frequently used by women to express the interest in having a "perfect" body.

I found that a lot of the posts were based around health and fitness, however the images themselves were of women with extremely thin and slender bodies. The description of a lot of the weight gain is "# months to a better you". This is often a toxic way of thinking about a persons body when it involves their weight.

I find it interesting how a lot of the images focus on a woman's waist. I will have my characters waistline visible to demonstrate the physical standard of women in society. I also found that a lot of animated women have small waists also. 

I came across this image on Pinterest. It's a powerful image that resonates the younger generation and the pressure of fitting into society's standards. There was not a source for the image, however is still feel that it's a powerful image that fully depicts how important and influential a child's mind is. Society may think that just because these animated features are considered to be cartoons, they are still in extremely influential for children. A child's mind can be fragile and impressions to the point that their view on the society's norm can be shaped and manipulated. 

In my response, I want an underlying sense of irony through the use of jokes and the execution of the dialogue. I hope to create a story board and a set of character designs that highlight the issues that children face when being influenced by these extremely famous animations.

My next step is to do further research into practitioners who experiment with body image and society.

COP Lecture - What is Research?

Research is important when creating an animation because it helps the designer create an understanding of the brief, and what goes into creating the final product.

Knowledge - The learner recalls or recognises information. Building up a knowledge and understand of what it is that's being asked is the first step in accumulating research. It helps create a sense of direction into what it is that needs to be researched in a visual and informative sense.

Analysis - The learner separates information into component parts. Analysis of information that's given helps the learner to distinguish between the important and unimportant information that needs to be involved.

Comprehension - The learner changes information into a different form, format or media. Creating a sense of understanding of what the information can be translated in to is an important stage in responding to a brief successfully. Identifying what medium the response should take on is key in the development of the response.

Application - The learner solves problems by using appropriate knowledge and generalisations. This can take the form of designing and illustrating what the learner will eventually present. In Animation, this could be in the form of storyboards and initial sketches.

Evaluation - The learner makes quantitative and qualitative judgements relating to establishing criteria. This is a stage where the learner compares and reviews the progress so far and comes to the conclusion of what is valuable to the final product.

Synthesis - the learner solves problems by combining information through original and creative thinking. By arranging important information gathered through the previous processes, the earner is able to construct a body of important work.

"Process is more important than outcome" - An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth - Bruce Mau Design In. 2006

The process of creating a final outcome is usually a lot more important than the final outcome. This theory is especially important for first year creative students, as it gives the learners a sense of freedom and helps creating a system of experimentation that can be followed in later projects.

The importance of failure in a creative research process can help a person learn from their mistakes and figure out what works and what doesn't. By failing regularly and quickly, it gives the learner more space to make things right again and get back on track.

Research is important in shaping an understand of what is already out there and what yet hasn't been accomplished. By researching into various things, this can help the learner be inspired by works of art and create individual solutions.

A Stimulated approach is a concious or subconscious search for inspiration from external sources, i the forms of various mediums. The investigation of various mediums that relate to the subject can help shape a persons concept and ambitions into the final response. In an animation sense, searching for inspiration from the world can help a characters designer, set designer or story boarder capture the atmosphere that is being aimed for. By researching and being inspired by existing artists can be difficult as it can sometimes lead to being too similar to the inspiration.

A Systematic Approach is based on the systematic collection and modification of characteristics and means of expression. This is an approach where the learner is structuring and reconstructing, enlarging and reducing, mirroring, adding, replacing and reproducing work in a search to find the solution. In an animation sense, when character designing, this could be exaggerating and enlarging certain features of the character to eventually find the perfect shape that fits the description and personality of the character.

An Intuitive Approach is the development of the thought process. By creating storyboards and noting down ideas and concepts of a design helps develop an understanding of where the creator wants the experimentation to go. In the animation design process, by writing down concepts in a written form, can help the individual and the onlooker to understand where the thoughts are coming from, and create an arc of information that is relevant to the studies/concepts.

Research is extremely important when creating an animation and within the animation process. By accumulating relevant information in the first place, the individual can create an understanding of where the research will take them. Researching into the different important facts presented in a brief, the individual can gain an understanding of what needs to be understood and what needs to be further researched into. Taking into account certain aspects such as the target audience for the animation and the issues that the animation needs to bring to light, can help the individual gain an understanding and input into what the brief is asking for.

Personally, I particularly enjoy researching and creating responses to the research I have gained. Speaking to other people and finding out their response and views on what's being presented to them is an extremely important aspect in developing a project. Learning the importance of primary research at this stage in my academic year, is an important skill to have. Creating my own research by taking pictures and visually researching into surroundings can help my drawing skills and create a sense of originality with my work. Secondary research is just as important as Primary research. By researching into secondary sources of data, can help create an understanding of a subject from a different point of view, and can also establish facts and important data in order to develop the project.

Qualitative research explores and attempts to understand peoples beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviour and interactions. The best processes of acquiring qualitative information can be through a series of in depth interviews, documentary analysis and participant observation. An animator could create Qualitative research by in-depth visual studies of objects or environments to create relevant drawings to create from later on in the process.

The information that is documented during the research process should be sufficient, competent, relevant and useful for the animator or group of developers in under to fully understand the aim and response clearly.

Analysing the problem, brief and question can help create an idea of what needs to be researched. It helps create lists of what needs to be researched into, what the individual needs to learn, what the specifics are, and what preferences the client has.

Evaluating the brief and you're own opinions as well as the opinions of outside sources, the individual is able to accumulate an understand of what works well and what doesn't. Questioning each stage of the production process, like taking into account the costs, effectiveness, ease and whether it works or not can help create an understanding of where the project should go next.

Finding solutions to issues that present themselves throughout the production process is a way of learning and gaining an understanding of mediums and various other aspects. By exploring all the possibilities and finding a solution can shape a project into it's best form.

Overall, I found this lecture helpful in understanding the importance of research and how it can help shape a response into the best it can be. I feel as though I haven't really done in depth research before and will definitely work towards creating a solid ground of research in my upcoming projects.