I wanted to start making work, so decided I would take a look at recreating the aesthetics within HKC. A classic chinese animation method is called ‘Chinese Paper Cut’, I wanted to see if I could employ this technique for recreating a scene within martial arts film to see how this method would reinterpret a particular scene. If it was I chose a fast paced scene would a stop motion style - which is essentially what chinese paper cut animation is, be could enough to capture the speed and actions. I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised, not only does it still flow really well but it gives the animation a nice motion, even without any sound effects I think you can say it has worked well. So with sound it should be really impactful.

Things to bare in mind from this test are

1. Taking the photos with a higher quality camera
2. It is very time consuming, a Long scene or whole animation could take a very long time.
3. I really like the cut out, rough and ready feel of it - I think it compliments the right aesthetic for HKC.
4. A background done in paper cut might make it feel more amateur.
5. Maybe think about doing this a an individual scene that is knitted together on AfterEffects?
6. What will it look like illustrated rather than photos from the film.
7. How will adding sound change the dynamic? Can I add my own sound effects?
8. Does the cropped image help it exist in the large space, how will it look without a large red background?
9. How does the blur motion on the images help give it that feeling of motion, can I replicate this in my artwork?

It is a good initial test that has worked well, once I have answered a few more of these questions I will know how much of a viable method it is for a final piece animation, how professional will the finished artwork look. Next step is to illustrate my own scene maybe based on a fight scene not directly copying it, maybe combine a few good ones to see if I can really play on the aesthetics, and importantly how does sound change the production?