Loop de loop

So Loop de loop are finally open for submissions! The deadline is 29th May so I have just cleaned up my gymnast and made it a gif and submitted! Here is my entry again and proof i submitted :)

CV

Here is my CV after making a few adjustments after talking to mike. Apparently I was underselling my abilities in the skills section buy not saying how competent i was. Hopefully that is better now. I also have changed the email address to be a professional one not the uni one.

Online portfolio

I have set up an online portfolio/website/blogger for my professional practice as I thought it would be a good way of showing people what I can do when they ask. I can also put this on my business card so they have somewhere specific to go to. 

I am actually really pleased with how it turned out. I was thinking of completely designing a website but that would take a lot of time and re learning things and there are some things I have no idea how to do yet and it would also require getting a domain name. So I decided to use my new professional google email and created a blogger but made it look less like a blog and more like a portfolio. Including tabs for all different areas of practice including animation, graphic design, character design, and photography.

I also created a vimeo account so that the videos on my website looked more professional and all the same and its a new account so I can just stick to the good pieces of animation. Unfortunately theres a weekly update limit for the free one so I will have to upload more next week and alter it on the website.

Heres the link to my new site!!

http://elysejackson.blogspot.co.uk

Business card

Here is my first attempt at my business card.
I went with some texture and the reversed colours and an illustration of myself.

I quite like it but I'm not sure if it looks professional? I like how it looks really sleek on one side and then its a bit more fun on the other.

Okay I have decided to go with the textured front and no texture on the back so you can see the words better. I have also decided to just put email website and phone number on the back as it would be an awfully long list with all the social media and it looks cleaner without. Plus if you go on my website all the info is there AND you can find me on most social media with just my name thats on the business card.

I have versions saved ready to print.

Tattoo

My initial thought here was use the red to cover the red like I had read online. so i lined up the cape on the neck with the main part of the red on the old design. luckily this made the other parts hidden too and there was a convinetntly shaped helmet nose in the original work. Unfortunately we agreed the placement was wrong and it need to be further up the arm. 

I then made it larger and moved it up but couldn't find a place where it hid things so i flipped the image making the dark shadows of the cape hide the majority with a little spilling over to the abs which I'm hoping will blend with the lines and shading.

 Once we decided he was happy with the position I started adding the bits that we had discussed. I sent him a photo of the top half and he was very excited and said he loved it. I didnt really know what to do next so he said he wanted a shield near but not central on the elbow and an immortals face. So i put a detailed shield just above the elbow spilling onto it and wrapping it round the arm and the immortal face wrapping round the forearm. I used photos and merged them together on photoshop for this as he wanted photorealism and tattooists do that from actual photos. It would get really rubbish if they were copying my slightly off copy.

This is all he has asked for for now and he is very excited for it. I have suggested he goes for a consult first though to double check it is possible mostly for the coverage as this can be tricky.

Business card research

 I have found lots of nice business cards. A lot of art ones have an illustration on i guess this helps show what the person can do so thats a good idea. I also really like the ones with the reverse colours on each side.I would love to have some texture to it. Here are a collection of business cards that I like.

Showreel 2016

I have created my showreel. It is less than one minute as recommended and it has a happy tune in the background that is just instrumental so it doesn't detract from anything else. It contains what I believe to be my best work. 

Tattoo cover up

This website is a great site for getting info on tattoo cover ups including use of colours. I learn you can cover tattoos using a darker version of the same colour or just a dark colour. also the colours merge together so if you put blue over red you'll end up with  a purply colour.: https://tatring.com/fixing-hiding-tattoos/How-To-Coverup-an-Old-or-Bad-Tattoo


this is also a good one explaining what can  and can't be done: http://www.idiotsguides.com/style-and-personal-care/tattoos-and-piercings/covering-up-an-old-tattoo/


From a bit of research it seems like the only things that will cover the red in his original design would be a darker red, a deep purple or a black. I think red or black could work in the design he is wanting. It also needs to be quite a bold piece that sits over it to cover it.

Showreel

Okay so looking at lots of tips and tricks for good showreels online including ones the tutors posted here are the important bits that I want to include in my own:

- Less than 1 minute- keep them interested
- Put your best work first- some people only have time to watch a bit and will turn off if its not good enough.
- End with a good piece- lasting impression
- Name and contact details on title page- just 1 not sequence- put at end too
-When sending showreel to specific people make sure its tailored to them.
- If theres group work- indicate which bit you did either on a caption or on a word document breakdown
- Show good animation techniques 

what free software is out there

So an alternative to buying an adobe licence would be to use other software that is free. Of course this may be difficult as i am used to using this software and it all goes together and works in tune with each other as that is how they are built. But if I didn't need to mix and match then i could use free software. Here are some i have found that might be worth taking a look at.
Serif DrawPlus Starter Edition is free and can be downloaded here: http://www.serif.com/free-graphic-design-software/ It looks really good as it has a lot of features that photoshop does and is supposed to be intuitive to use. It also has an animation component which is very important. Unfortunately this only is available to download on windows and i have a mac. They do supply software for mac but it is not free. HOWEVER £39.99 is a damn good one off price for design software!!It is called Affinity designer and it won apple designer award 2015. It looks very useful and dare i say it may look even better than adobe? It feels like it has photoshop and illustrator in one package. Im not 100% sure if this has animation but there is a free trial so it might be worth looking at. There is also a photo editing version which would be like the equivalent to lightroom.

For 3D there is blender which I have previously used and seems quite easy and now with my knowledge of Maya I might get along a bit better with it. I think i would like to give it a go to keep my abilities up. However i don't think you can import existing puppets like Moom into it. 

Pencil 2D is a software that is for more frame by frame traditional animation like i am currently doing rather than flash. This is supposed to be relatively easy to use especially if you have used the adobe suite before.

So there are definitely things out there that i could use including many more than this. It is just a case of whether i feel any of these do a good enough job compared to the adobe suite and how much I am willing to pay. I think it would be good practice to download these things and have a look at them at least for future reference for example if i really need to do something on a tight budget or if i won't be making money out of what i am making.

loop de loop

So I have finished my animation, coloured it and put a background on. The line work is still a little rough so if i get chance i will fix this. but looks good from far away xD I was really pleased with how the movement turned out on this as i didn't rotoscope it. This shows that my animation has come a long way over the past year as i wouldn't have even attempted this last year. 
Now just to wait until loop de loop puts up its new website and is open for submission. I understand there may be some guidelines to come but i will just edit to that if needs be.
I also still have the black and white one if i decide i don't like these bright colours.

Tattoo

I have been asked to design a tattoo. This might be difficult as it is more realistic. It also has to cover an existing tattoo and create part of a half sleeve. The theme is spartans featuring King Leonidas in his helmet.
This is how i started off, then the bottom left corner came second and we both preferred this close up idea.

So i  created this, i started to think more about the background too as it is creating a sleeve this will help with the wraparound.

This shield would be wrapped around the arm 

connecting to leonidus from the previous image.

The client really likes this and he gave me feedback while drawing it. however now i need to think logistically about how this wraps around the arm and more importantly how we are going to cover this existing tattoo. I think there needs to be something with  a lot of lines over this as a block colour might show this through.

Loop de loop

So this time the loop de loop theme is tumble. I didn't really have an idea for this but i googled tumble and a lot of things came up that i had not thought of. One of which was tumble as in gymnastics. This is something i have always been interested in and wanted to try and animate so i thought i would give this a go. Now rotoscoping would have been easier but i have already done this before and i wanted to see if i could do it just with a bit of reference as it would be something to be more proud of. I went on you tube and found this video which i chose i snipet of at around 13 seconds in.

I like this move and i can create like a tick tock to make it loop.

This is what i have so far just to mark out the moves:

I think i am going to use some extra bits to make it look more interesting like paint splashing from the feet when she kicks or something. maybe some cool colours. I also thought about making the girl a colour silhouette but I'm not sure about that.

how much is adobe suit going to cost after uni and why i have to have it legally

So If i want to continue using the Adobe softwares when I leave uni and start using them for commercial work then I will have to get a proper licence. There are a few options of costs here. I can pay for a years worth monthly for £45.73 a month or I can pay 68.60 a month as and when I need it. This sounds more expensive but actually if you only need it for 6 months total out of the year then that would be £411.60 instead of £548.78… but that means that paying for the whole year actually works out cheeper as your only paying 137.18 more for the extra 6 months. I think when I leave I will do it on a monthly basis until I get work coming in where I need to have the software for more than a couple of months of the year. When this happens i will pay for the year but monthly. I will only be able to afford this though when I have a steady job.

Competition brief

I have looked at YCN briefs and the Dowe edgburts one looks the most interesting to me. This is something entirely different to what i am going for extended practice which will give me a break from it whilst also being interesting. It is also something I have looked at in the past and have never tried. It is to create something new to bring the brand into the younger generation and to get them to drink coffee at home.

This is the brief:
Develop a creative campaign, new product, new packaging or communications idea for Douwe Egberts in the UK to appeal to younger consumers, to increase their awareness of Douwe Egberts and ideally have a theme that can extend across different media. It needs to present Douwe Egberts as a brand that is contemporary, without losing its heritage and expertise. We know that people in the 18-30 age bracket will happily spend their money in a Starbucks or a Costa, but not drink coffee at home. The challenge in this brief is to find a way of making coffee drunk at home as appealing as coffee drunk in a coffee shop.


On second thought i have decided against this as it is rather a large brief and i don't feel i have time to complete it to a high enough standard that would be required.

competition ideas

I think as I have A LOT of animating to do with the extended practice module i need to look at competitions that aren't animation. This way i can have a break from animating but also create a wider portfolio and possibly do more live/competition briefs because animation takes a long time and I honestly don't think ill have time to do much more animating than the extended brief.

Competition entry ideas

I would quite like to do a loop de loop entry this year. The deadline for this month has just ended so I can't see the new word yet but if I feel it is a good word then I will enter. This would be needed my then end of march I assume as it is bi-monthly. This gives me a good amount of time to work on it but also gets it out of the way before my extended practice will be getting stressful.
I would like to do this because I have not had a chance to enter this before and as i am getting more confident in my practice it would be good to show it to the world and find out what they think. It also helps really think about the planning and idea so that it works with the theme and also loops seamlessly.

Oblong

So Oblong Cinema is a place in leeds that screens shorts and feature lengths with the opportunity for feedback afterward and to see what other people are up to and they are especially looking for material from Yorkshire. As far as I can see this is free. 
However it appears to be like a youth group kind of vibe which I'm not really into but I guess it might be a more comfortable place to first screen an animation before it goes out into the rest world and possibly to practicing professionals.
I think I may do this with my animation for extended practice to see what kind of reaction it gets.

The twirlywoos

So I have an interest in childrens tv animation and i enjoy watching these shows with my nieces...as research obviously ;) At christmas I asked their mum what they wanted for christmas and she said that the youngest (1 year old) loves the twirlywoos on cebeebies. I had not seen this one before so I was curious why she liked it so much... so I watched it. Well i just couldn't get over how awful it was. The story like is so repetitive and boring, almost all visual and they have stupid names. 

However, my niece likes it right? so why is this?

Well i did some research. Well for starters the characters are bright primary colours which is appealing to young children. They are also very soft looking which is very important for children that young as they find it comforting whereas they find things like plasterscine almost scary like its something they don't want to touch therefore they don't like it. 

So what about the rubbish storyline? well Anne Wood, the creator of Twirlywoos says that young children recognise movement like up, down, in, out, or empty and full like this example very early on in their development. So not only does it have appealing characters but they are doing things that the children understand or are beginning to understand, and the repetitiveness in this really helps to cement this understanding. 

This has made me feel a lot better about this animation and I now understand why young children like it. My nearly 4 year old niece says she thinks its okay but her little sister really likes it. 

This has made me realise that the thought that goes into these animations is actually quite a lot and when they are young the difference in interest is actually quite big. They're ability to follow a story isn't there at 1 but they can understand the basic things that they have learnt so far. This is probably why a lot of animations for this age range have barely any talking in them because they haven't established full language understanding. 

Barry Purves\

Started career in theatre, wanted to be an actor. 

Wrote a letter to mark hall saying how much better he can make the characters perform 

oscar wild - an is least honest when he talks as himself- give a man a mask and hell tell you the truth

super héros need alter egos to do what they wouldn't do in normal life

whenever you write a story find a device that lets the protagonist talk. like mary poppins and her umbrella

Don't think literally

Plume- about surviving- wanted it to be a ballet crossed with a  rugby scrum

textbook 3 act structure. act 1 - man who flies. wings get broken act 2- wants to fly again but someone stops him. act 3- overcomes obstacles and moves on

"eyes in animation are the most important thing you can give a puppet. you can take away his nose you can take away his ears but you can't take away his eyes."

animates everything right to left to create a geography as there is no set. should have really been left to right as that shows good things and moving forward.

uses real duck wings- has to be done through taxidermist. started off with dove wings but they were too small

cg feathers in falling scene

if you cut from a wide shot to a close up, make sure the character is in the same place in the scene 

used dragon fame

doesnt like double framing as it gives less detail.

to make a character disturbing make them blink out of sequence

movement can tell the story too. goody was fluid baddy was jagged in movement

single feather with light suggesting hope

used mirror for reflection then rippled it in post

as he goes into he water its all cg and it shows same but different and about barry embracing cg cause he was doing a stop motion in hollywood that god changed to cg

Consider everything- even the smaller thing/ gesture can contribute to your film

cut the character- "theres no point in designing a character if all it does is come on and say hello"

tchaikovsky 

wanted a piano but not having it made it more fluid. he actually playd the correct keys for the music with his hands

swan shows trauma rose shows love

colour compostitio lighting music don't be literal.

Thought bubble

I quite like mike medaglias work. I like the textures on the paper and the muted tones. I think this is something i would quite like to explore. I find this kind of style calming. I like the one year wiser things where theres lovely illustrations with nice quotes. His style is like more of a detailed cartoon and i like that. Looks like he's used water colours for his technique, possibly neatened up on photoshop. I like how its not all perfect but its still lovely. I think i can learn a lot from that.

I also liked lisa cummings, I'm pretty sure i saw her work last year too. Its lovely and vibrant and i like the use of shadow and shading on her lovely fantasy work.

I Think the marquee is always my favourite place to find things i love. For example Anadapta. Some beautiful imagery in there.I think this cover from her comic is lovely. I love the use of colour and the fact that it almost looks sparkley with the lighting choices!

Then of course theres Des Taylor who i found last year and bought his comic. I still really like him and we follow each other on instagram. I do like how he draws women and his whole style. I also really like how he does his photographic style back grounds i think it gives his images so much depth! I also like that in Katie Rogers although she's really pretty and girly he's not afraid to make her pull funny faces and do embarrassing things. It makes her feel more real! But still in a beautiful pin up style.

I quite like Emma Viacelis work. The best way i can describe it is like westernised manga/ anime. Maybe mixed with a bit of fashion art? Either way this is something I really like. I think this is a style I would like to explore. The line work seems nice and free but still with purpose. You can feel the movement and it feels more like a moment captured by a camera than a thought out drawing. 

Thought bubble

Yesterday I went to thought bubble. I attended the writers round table where Marguerite Bennett, Ray Fawkes, Emi Lenox, Charles Soule and Kurtis Wiebe spoke about their experiences writing comics. I liked that they all said that they loved their jobs and they're not in it for the money. They also mentioned how they got into writing and who was they're mentor. Marguerite was interesting as her mentor was her professor that had read one of her stories and liked it. Some time later he called her up saying he still thinks about her stories and said if she really wanted to go for it he thinks it would do well so she did and how she writes for DC!! I also found Emi quite funny and interesting. She writes an auto biography blog kind of thing called Emi town and is quite successful. She is a visual thinker so she writes her stories in pictures and writes a few words to go with them. I have recently read some of these and i actually really like them. I like her drawing style too. Its very cartoony but i like how she uses just two colours usually one colour with white for like the highlights and things. It works really well and looks nice and simple and clean. I feal like i can relate to a lot of things she writes about too which is nice. After reading quite a lot on the blog i feel i would quite like to read the book. 
They were saying they would like to see more horror comics but I think Emi disagreed as when she tried to read____ with the spirals she couldn't finish the book and literally put it across the other side of the room! I also like how when asked the question like do you change what you write to please your audience, Im pretty sure they all said no. They write for themselves. Emil said no because its supposed to be about her life so why would she lie.
I really wanted to attend sketching spotlight but unfortunately i had to work at this time. I have seen photos though and thought it was awesome. I think i will ask to see videos and things that my friends have done as i did really want to see it.

I really enjoyed seeing all the cosplay at the event. My favourite was a girl that was dressed as someone from Harry Potter and she had a REAL OWL with her! it was so cool and she let it fly around the room a few times too. Unfortunately it kept pooping on the floor though... 

Ainimation awards- leeds film festival

Today I went to the animation awards held in the everyman cinema (with lovely sofa seats) It was an interesting experience thats for sure. Although there was lots of lovely animation..there seemed to be an overwhelming theme of death :S
The Master was the first one we saw. I thought the animation was just lovely, if I'm correct it was stop motion. The textures on the puppets were lovely and the dog seemed so real in its movements. It was about a dog and a monkey who were living in a house and waiting for their owner to return...the owner never came. The monkey escaped the cage and started acing a little bit human. Then he hit the dog with a fire poker thing which i thought was cruel but they made up. Then it took a graphic turn. The monkey got drunk, found a gun and shot them both!!...Whaaaaa? Then right at the end it said "dedicated to my mum" I was like....mummy issues? was that a hint that his mum left or was it him trying to be nice...?

Next up was Emila and Duarte. This was pretty cool. It was pixillation and it was about a couple who broke up and there was this entire room full of boxes and inside the boxes was all the stuff from couple that had broken up. Strange but nice. At least they didn't kill each other...

Next was Haircut. Just...what...? I didn't really like the drawing style but i did like the way they moved the hands i thought that looked good. So It was about a girl with short hair who cuts off the plait of a girl with long hair. The plait appears to be alive. Then they take the hair bobble out and all the strands of hair run away. Then we see another girl with the same plait and she just walks off...I'm guessing there was some kind of underlying message but i can't for the life of me figure it out!

ManOMan was quite funny. Use of puppets again but more obviously puppets which was funny when one of the characters used someones hand sticks to slap himself in the face. It was about lots of angry people then a guy sicked up another littler version of himself who was angrier than the original who was not. The little guy thought the big guy how to live a little and be a bit angry. Then he pushed a guy in front of a train. Then he jumped off a building. Yep. More death.

Paradox was about a man who starting sprouting grass. he tried to get it off but it came back then he grew a tree and it hurt then there was stuff growing all over him until he became a mound of nature and it died. I think theres a message in there too...I think.

I really like Air-Mail. It was in like a cut out kind of style and a cat kept trying to eat a fish but the owner wouldn't let him. And then he tried to eat the bird who was made out of an envelope. Then the owner of the cat fell in love with the owner of the fish. It doesn't seem like much story when i try to tell it back but it was cute and funny and seemed more constructed when you actually watch it.

Wellington Jr. Well that was an animation and a half....Creepy faces but lovely scenery. bit of stop motion and claymation in there. The story was about a boy who came of age and in this place when someone comes of age they go hunting and wear their preys head as a hat. So these boys went with their dads and the main boy wasn't doing very well. all of the other boys were wearing their hats. They were out all night hunting when the boy finally killed what looked like a moose. So his hat was going to be the best one ever. They took the moose back and just before they entered the cave the dad put the head on his head instead. The boy was mortified and shot his dad. You guessed it. More death. I actually quite liked the story up until that point.

In the distance Was nice. A little simple 2d animation with no change in camera angle or anything which worked really well in this. It was a man and his chicken living in a house many miles up in the air. It was during the war so planes were coming over a lot. I think it was funny when a man climbed a ladder to his house, was out of puff and the ladder didn't reach. He came back another day with a longer ladder and the house owner just kicked the ladder down once the army man got to the top. He didn't seem to care. Then bombs came on his house and cause minor damage. His chicken died. And then all of a sudden he unrolled a ladder and walked down it. The end. Another one i didn't understand its ending.

Autumn was next. Not really my style of animation it was a bit wishy washy in the drawings. I think this was about mental illness possibly? like the lady got letter and she was like that person isn't here anymore. Then things went a bit sad and she drown in a pool of water but that wasn't real. Then she was collecting red leaves cause her friend said ill come when the leaves turn red. Then there was a knock at the door but she didn't answer. So i think the letter was addressed to her. 

So all in all quite a confusing murderous evening. It was good to see what people have been up to all over the world but i just came away with a sense of....whaaaaa? 

PPP3

OUAN 602 

Deadline-19th May 2016 2pm

Don't be a dick

If you annoy one person it'll get out and you will not get employes. Animation is a small industry and word spreads.

-Research blog- who should you talk to, where are they, are you happy to move?
-Develop relationships with practitioners
-Engage- develop portfolio, enter competitions
-Planning- Plan of action/ critical report. What are you going to do, when will you leave, how?
-Position- sell yourself, good cv, good media presence
-Look at placements, work experience etc

-1 Blog post a week
-New ways of working
-Competitions live briefs, work in teams at least 1 entry
-12 month action plan, focus on goals.
-What else do you need to learn?
-Childrens media conference- sheffield if interested in working in child entertainment
-Have everything you need to promote yourself e.g.. cv, business card, blog/website, showreel, portfolio.

PDF of blog, evidence that you have engaged and done something. 2000 word report, showreel and other appropriate marketing materials

Thought of you

Something that hasn't changed this year....I am still madly in love with the animation- thought of you by Ryan WoodwardThought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo. I think it is just absolutely beautiful and hopefully when i get better at drawing which i plan to over summer, maybe i can attempt something like this. 

What I like about this film is the movement..the fluidity and the pure raw animation that tells a beautiful story in a beautifully visually appealing way. Maybe this is something I can do for my extended practice? just work on making movements beautiful? Yes I think I might do that as it is something i have loved for 2 years now.

Learning journey presentation

I decided to make my learning journey presentation a video. It will have words saying what I want to say, with my animations i have done backing up the words and a few images. Also a few extra bits of really simple animation just to make it a bit more visual. It will have fun upbeat music in the background.
I have decided to do it this way because I think its more engaging and its almost like a showreel itself. I think people will enjoy watching it because there is lots of different things in it but with a structure of a plain slide with words between each thing. 

Buisness card

I have decided to do a double sided business card as people flip them over all the time anyway but also it leaves more room for a more striking image on the front. I would've liked this to actually be a piece of art but unfortunately i don't really have anything that would be right for it yet so its something to work on.

I went with a more graphic design kind of feel with bold contrasting colours. I personally really like dark grey and turquoise together. I used thought bubbles on the front because I think of thought bubbles as a creative thing so it would show that I am creative. On the back i reversed the colours for interest and i used simple images instead of writing out 'twitter, instegram, telephone,email.' I  think this makes it more simple and easy to read and it looks cleaner and you can easily pinpoint what you want and its not cluttered.

Portfolio

Here is a small portfolio of work I have done over the past couple of years from drawings to photography. It was hard to find things to put in as I'd never really thought I'd need to so hadn't really saved a lot of my work! But I think this shows a wide range of skills which is good in a portfolio I believe especially when you don't really specialise yet. Next year I hope to have lots of character design in my portfolio.

Showreel

I have just put together my showreel. I was gathering my videos yesterday and realised there isn't all that much and some of which I don't want to use because I don't feel proud of them. As you supposed to put your best work in , i put in things i wouldn't mind showing people. I cut down some animations into littler parts that i liked and put them in different parts of the showreel so it gives a bit of variation and also it doesn't make clips too long and boring. I think my showreel is fast paced enough with a nice upbeat sound track from http://www.purple-planet.com.

SWOT analysis 2

I have decided to re do my SWOT analysis and see whats changed.


S-trengths
-What are you good at
-unique selling points
-experience/knowledge
-recourses
-innovation
-location/geography

W-eaknesses
-What can you improve
-gaps in your knowledge
-timescale
-reputation
-commitment
-planning

O-ppertunities
-what do you get out of this
-networking/partnerships
-learning new skills
-research

T-hreats
-What to keep an eye on
-Time management
-Competition
-Technologies
-Distraction
-Expectations
-Popular


SWOT on my self



Strengths:
-fairly good at drawing
-Can use multiple techniques and softwares
-open to ideas
-can work collaboratively or on my own
-will give anything a go
-have gained confidence in overall abilities
-People said i have an eye for comedy

Weaknesses:
-insecure about work
-envy of other peoples work/compare myself to them
-laziness/lack of motivation/ love of sleep+bed
-need to work on drawing to gain confidence

Opportunities:
-I plan to go to thought bubble again next year and this time take a sketch book
-I plan to work on more drawing over summer

Threats:

-I still feel everyones work is better than my own and this can be damaging to the way people view me if i keep knocking my own work.

-Distractions come in the form of films and tv shows.

Pixar

Chris Sasaki  - character designer at pixar

We met one of the character designers at Pixar- something i thought would never ever happen-and it was awesome!! I was a little bit start struck as this guy has designed the characters in the up and coming Inside out which I am really looking forward to seeing!! He also had a part in designing the characters for monster university which is a great film! He said he was really pleased to be part of that project as it was monsters inc that inspired him to get into this.

Some of the things he shared with us was : theres lots of research involved in getting final look of characters- to try and make things believable- when you find the authernticity it makes the audience relate.
research drawing help you find out things that are consistent that you need to put in the final. 
have to do turnarounds and work with character builders to tell them how they can build it and to keep it how its supposed to be. 
try and bring your personal life into your animations and make it authentic
always has to be a reason why your doing something
clarity and strong silhouettes and strong gestures are very important

These are all really interesting points to consider especially as I am wanting to look more into character design next year. I have learnt that the silhouette is a very important thing from almost everyone we have spoken to and read about. Also the ability to relate to the characters.

It was so great to be able to meet someone who is working on the films you aspire to create in the future.

He told us he didn't get into Cal Arts which i thought was almost a must to work at Pixar, but he just showed perseverance and willingness to take on tasks and had a great portfolio and worked his way up getting experience.

The art of Rio

I recently bought a book called The art of Rio. It is so good! I am thoroughly enjoying reading it especially the little bits about the theory behind what they did in the character design. I found it really interesting about how the eye is supposed to be the first thing the audience sees so they connect with the character as that is where all the emotion comes from. With birds, the beak is usually quite large and the first thing we see. So to combat this, they make the eyes larger and all the lines from the beak point to the eye. That is just so clever and not something I had really thought of before!!! I just want to learn more things like this-its so interesting!! I think reading things like this will also improve my own character design skills which i hope to work on next year.

Pop up show

Today we had our pop up show in the lecture theatre, screening our animations for Applied animation 2. We made this a professional event by creating individual posters as well as a group poster, creating a Facebook event, word of mouth, and also we provided drinks and snack to watch our films with. I think we possibly would've got more people if we had set up the event a bit earlier.

Everyones animations turned out very professionally and I think a lot of people enjoyed them. We got a larger turn out than I had anticipated which was great. 

All in all it felt like a great event that had been properly organised and thought about.

Presentation

Ideas for presentation:
I want there to be some animation but i won't have time for a fully animated presentation so I'm hopefully going to do just some tiny bits of animation through the presentation.

I think what i want to say will be:

This year I have learnt a lot. I learnt to animate in 3D which was something i was looking forward to. I would like to keep learning about maya over summer as i believe it has a lot of potential. for example the way i used it to animate 2d images in 3d space in my applied animation project.

I have also learnt a lot more of after effects and can use it more confidently now.
I did my first collaborative project which i thoroughly enjoyed and its actually something i am quite proud of! I have learnt the importance of working with someone to make your work better as i also learnt from not collaborating in the applied module.

I have also learnt to juggle A LOT of work at the same time and try and keep on top of it. I think i can vouch for everyone when i say responsive was not an enjoyable module. I like that it got me to enter competitions as i wouldn't have done it before and it was nice to have freedom to pick out own briefs. But there was just so much work to do and keep track of. it was an extemely stressful time that i am glad it over. 

Next year in cop i would like to explore the theory of character design. I have been reading the art of rio recently and was fascinated by the reasons behind what they do for example-the eye is the first thing the audience needs to see and with a bird, the beak is usually really big and gets in the way so to combat this they make the eyes larger and use the lines of the beak to draw into the eye so its what you look at first. like i said...fascinating.

Over summer i plan to improve my drawing skills and learn the technical aspects of it like perspective as i feel that this is holding me back a little. I also am really looking forward to exploring character design in depth for my cop project.

It has been a difficult and testing year that i am glad to be the other side of now. I am looking forward to next year in the fact that there will be less modules to juggle but the content will provide us with a much better portfolio/showreel.

Wreck it ralph

I have just recently watched Wreck it Ralph (walt disney animation studios) for the first (and second) time and i thought it was absolutely brilliant. One of my favourite animated films now.
I think what I liked best about this was the storyline. I didn't really have an idea of what the story was before I watched it so when it started I just thought it was such a fantastic idea that these characters in arcade games had lives when the arcade shut and that they could go to "game central station" which was actually the power supply they were all plugged into and use the wired to travel to a different game like its a train! Then when you see characters in a different game, they are transferred into whatever style that game is in! I was just blown away by what a clever idea it was. I even noticed the second time watching it that when Ralph smashes the cake, the goo that comes off looks like its in pixels and the lights are pixels and the broken stairs are pixels!! 
Wreck it ralph was originally thought of at disney in the late 1980's, being developed under the name of High score. 10 years later it was redeveloped under the title of Joe Jump, then another 10 or so years later as Reboot Ralph. Finally in 2011 it was called Wreck it Ralph.

I wanted to find out who came up with the story originally because its amazing. All that I have been able to find for the past hour is that John Lassaster directed it.

Kilogramme animation

tries to make other peoples dry ideas funny but also makes own ideas.
he comes up with initial script then other people give input and change it about until they're all happy.

if you say your going to make something give yourself a deadline and make sure you make it or someone else will.

script design, story board, voice record, animatic, animation, final composite, final render
show client at every finished stage.
if a client wants something changing after they have signed it off, you can charge them extra for that change and give them the option to want it changed or not.
richard wiliams and preston blairs books
script is king. can't make a good film out of a bad script
they have apprenticeships but you have to stand out
put your best stuff a the beginning of showreel

Drawing

I have been practicing drawing and I love drawing faces. I felt like i needed to find time to draw things that weren't to do with modules. After drawing these I realised that my drawing skills have actually improved a lot since i started the course. This has made me want to draw more as i feel like I am improving a lot. Practice makes perfect! I plan to draw a lot more over the summer but not only draw-actually learn to draw from books and youtube tutorials!

life drawing

I have decided i need to work on my drawing skills so in order to do that i decided to take some life drawing classes. This will help me learn human proportions and like of action and a lot of things that are necessary to draw good characters. 
I found the first session very frustrating especially the 1 minute drawings. this is definitely not my forte and i got really annoyed with myself. As the drawings got longer I was getting increasingly frustrated as that should make things easier but i felt like nothing was going right and i didn't know what to do! In the end i decided to stop drawing the whole body and concentrate on certain aspects instead. 
I feel i need A LOT more practice on this. Unfortunately the sessions have stopped now for the term but i will definitely be going back next year as i think it will be very useful!! I will also practice figure drawing and general drawing skills over summer.

Des Taylor-The trouble with Katie Rogers

I bought this comic from Des Taylor himself at Thought Bubble this year as i was just inspired by the artwork! I decided it really lent itself to animation. I was chatting to him and he said if I ever did decide to animate it or whatever then to email him and let him see what I have done so that is what I would really like to do.

I copied and altered the image from the front cover of the comic. I really enjoyed doing this and want to do more! I plan to make her blow a kiss to the camera then turn round and walk off. Just something really simple that will bring the character to life. I kind of think maybe she should wobble or trip on her heels when she walks away as that is the kind of character she is but we will see. I think this will become a summer project.

Character design

I have been asked to do some character design for a novel that someone is writing. All communication has been through email. I really wanted to give this a go because I am quite interested in character design but haven't really had a chance to concentrate on it. Unfortunately there is a lot of work to be doing at the moment and I don't think i can fit it in with my work as there are 50 characters. He said thats not a problem as there is no deadline really so I asked if it would be okay if i did it as a summer project and he said that was fine! He said we will talk about payment when i start doing them properly. This is my first rough pencil design for the first character but obviously it needs to be in graphic novel kind of style.