Plenty for animation students to enjoy at Falmouth Art Gallery with the opening of The Art of Animation exhibition, January 29th to March 26th 2022. Curated by your very own Derek Hayes, Katharine Nicholls and Rosa Mulraney. The exhibition reveals the underlying process of taking an initial idea and developing it into an animated film or tv series. Exhibits include Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Mr Bean, The Snail and the Whale, Ethel and Ernest, We’re going on a Bear Hunt, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, as well as award winning individual animators such as Joanna Quinn (Britannia, Affairs of the Art). There is an emphasis on the original artwork but it is also a multimedia exhibit with video screens running clips from the films as well as ‘Making of…’ films and side-by-side comparisons from initial sketches to finished films.
“We are focusing on the visual evidence of that process but have not restricted ourselves only to the contributions made by artistic roles, we even have a rather beautiful Producer’s spreadsheet thats reveals insights into their behind the scenes process of the TV special, The Tiger Who Came To Tea.”
Derek Hayes, Senior Lecturer, Animation BA(Hons), Falmouth University
The exhibition reveals the behind the scenes insights, such as the initial sparks that inspired the ideas and the fine artists who influenced the designs.
The exhibition is proving to be a hit with 200 visitors recorded in one day. Visitors are coming from far and wide and the exhibition has even made the newspapers with a listing in the Culture section of the Independent.
You can view actual puppets and props from the Curse of the Were-rabbit which were very kindly loaned by Aardman. Sometimes called ‘stop-frame’, sometimes ‘puppet animation’ or ‘claymation’, the stop-motion animation technique has its own way of doing things. For a start there are all those puppets, props, and costumes to make. Then there are sets to build and paint!
There are guides available in the gallery to explain the animation pipeline. Animation studios use a workflow called the ‘production pipeline’, in which all tasks are listed and checked, step by step. The pipeline is usually divided into 3 main stages: pre-production, production, and post-production, and each animation may have different variations within this pipeline.
Concept art is the earliest exploration of how the animation will look and is often used as part of a pitch to sell a project before production begins. Illustrations of dramatic moments from the story are created, which also serve as inspiration throughout the production.
The initial phase of pre-production involves research, story, design, and the planning of the entire project. The more thorough the pre-production phase, the easier the production will be. Once production starts it’s really useful to have a tracking form, like the one below to keep track of what stage is complete and what still needs to be done.
It’s the design team that brings the world to visual life. Sets, settings, characters, costumes, props and all the visual elements found in the script need to be designed and tested, then re-designed and re-tested. Once finalised, the designs are brought together to form a ‘design bible’, which acts as a blueprint for everyone to follow. Much of the content in the exhibition reveals these design secrets!
The exhibition features work created in different mediums. The main difference between a 2D and a 3D project is that in a 3D project there will need to be more technical testing and problem solving, often called ‘R&D’ (research and development), alongside the creative work.
Each section in the gallery is themed. The photo above is the environment section. What do we mean by environment? Where the action takes place. What is the world these characters will live in and what does it look like at different times of day or different times of year? The other sections in the gallery include ideas, story and design.
We hope our visitors enjoyed their visit and extend our thanks to everyone who made it possible!
Thanks to:
Peter Lord, Tom Vincent, Emily Metcalf – Aardman
Joanna Quinn, Les Mills – Beryl Productions
Stefano Dunne, Michael Rose – Magic Light Productions
Daniel Snaddon
Alix Vuillier, Vanessa Wheeler, Ruth Fielding, Camilla Deakin – Lupus Films
Osbert Parker
Eleni O’Keefe – Tiger Aspect
Kitty Taylor
Iain Harvey, Nick Harvey – Illuminated Films
Mark Taylor – A Productions
Prawta Annez
Luis Cook
Naomi Jones – Cartwn Cymru
Elaine Pamphilon
Becky Blair
Katrin Coetzer
Nikki Marlborough, Julian Wright, Josie Mattock, Paul Sewry – Falmouth University
Henrietta Boex and her wonderful team at Falmouth Art Gallery
If you’ve not been to Falmouth Art Gallery before, it’s in the centre of Falmouth above the Library. You can either walk in via the Library or go around the back.
If you live too far away and can’t visit you can find out more about the behind the scenes process of animation at Making Animation. If we have inspired you to study animation then visit our course page at Falmouth University
Falmouth Animation & VFX 