Week 58: Conceptualise This...

These posts will probably keep getting shorter and shorter the busier I am! The main reason being that the current project / commissions i'm working on aren't really things I can showcase just yet. Im i'm still trying to keep on top of my own personal projects like regular sketches... SHAUN T for example.

I'm also really wanting to update my concept art game, but that's looking less likely this side of the year but i'm still hoping to cram it in to my days.
My current list of priorities are:

1. Animation Project (With Natasha)
2. Commissions x 3 (before Christmas)
3. Comic Commission (for Phil)
4. Ribbiting Comic
5. Creative life (including Drumming, Concept Art and other projects)

I need to be stricter with myself and make sure i'm sticking to my own personal schedule - 4 and 5 are falling to the wayside for too easily and that's even before starting #3. but i've got a handle on it me thinks...its all about more and often! So dedicating an hr or 2 each day of solid work to 4&5 should help a lot.

Week 56: Projects and Predicitions

Definitely been a bit on the slow side in terms of personal projects, mainly due to Dudley (Natasha) and I landing some freelance work =D its a 2D project which i'll keep hush for now, but been pretty flat out all week with illustrating and kicking off the 2D animation next week.

VERY excited #nerd

In the meantime... MISTY KNIGHT

Week 55: Oops

Been a few weeks since I was working on Animators Island.. here's a quick one ha.

Its lacking exaggeration bit will tweak at a later point.


And the end of Inktober - really happy with how these final 3 turned out.

Week 54: My Mate Python

Now that i have my time back, i've started a couple of online courses to help me progress with my animation. I'm doing a Programming in Python Course and Game App course all courtesy of Future Learn.

They're about 4-7 weeks long and it's a lot of into to take in. But knowing all the stuff I learnt this last year and some previous knowledge of basic coding is really gonna help - I don't entirely feel like a deer caught in the headlights just yet!

ALSO almost at the end of inktober and I think i've learn heaps, and my style has definitely relaxed a lot more. I'm gonna do a more concept art based challenge next month to get my environments up to scratch.

Week 53: Inktober Problems

I can be so bloody slow.

A few more from my inktober collection

I'm limiting myself to no longer than an hour each day now! Starting with Zoe from Firefly.

Really need to work on my speed. I blame the traditional artist in me.

Week 52: Inking and Inking

Im in serious Inktober mode - working mainly on my speed. I'm still not Natasha quick, but in the last week i've found that i'm getting quicker and less hesitant with my lines.

Here are a few and I still need to draw the first 4 days that I missed. Trying to do different things and not just stick to my comfort portraits (which is working).

The running theme is Heroes of Colour ^_^

Still Walking, Kinda

Well this has taken me longer than hoped mainly due to just having time to do it... but i'm calling this finished! 
Pretty happy with this and I know that in a few months i'll be able to do a much better one but as it stands i'm happy with it ha. Still need to work on adding much more personality and secondary movements in other areas like the head etc but that will be with my next cycle

Week 51: Walk Before You Run

I've pretty much spent the week (or bits of it) working on a walk cycle haaaa. I've sketched, resketched, and resketched again atleast 6 times, each time figuring out something new. I'm also starting to give it a bit more weight and character...

This is the most recent rough one with Garnet (Steven Universe) as my model. This will need tweaks a a few inbetweens so I can get it to a semi polished state


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Also finally kicked off my Inktoberrr haaaa, using it as a an excuse to try out new things and push my character work a bit more

Redo's, Ret-Cons and Realisations

So before moving onto the next stage of my 2D animation learning, i've decided to redo some of the previous tasks after paying better attention and really considering timing and the principles. I don't want to just gloss over steps and I really want to improve quickly.

I've realised (and so has Natasha) that i've got a good understanding / grip of the principles, but depending on my artistic mood (mainly laziness) I can let these slip in favour of finishing quickly.  oops.

Well eithr way i'm keep reworking on some of these. The flour sack kicking the ball was the first to go!!

Old

New

Finally 'fleshed out' the jump. I think this one will be redone once I get near to the end of my task list

Old

New


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EDIT A few other tweaks - mainly adding a few extra key frames and adjusting the timings

Week 50: Sack it off

More daily practice. I think this one was a bit rushed, I could definitely have worked more on the weighting especially. But its good I can recognise that



Task 11: Flour Sack Kicking a Ball

Task 12: Change in Character Emotion The hilarity of it all.


Task 13: Character Jumping Over a Gap I need to flesh this one out...

Task 13: Standing Up From a Chair
Was a bit lazy with this one, but I guess my main aim was to get the key poses in - i've been working in 1s so i'm trying to break that habit kinda...


I also decided to sculpt the creepiest thing i've ever seen in my life... and abuse the polypaint tool I present, Day 7 of my Speed Sculpt. The creators of Stephen Universe must be quaking in their boots

Day 8: in my attempt to reacquaint myself with ZSpheres, ZBrush turned on me today. So this was less of a speed sculpt and more of a lesson in confusion and patience. Im planning to make this one a longer project.

Its so fiddly sometimes ack. Hence DOUBLE. 

Speeding, Sketching, Succeeding (or maybe not)

Back in the art game. Lots of attempts at increasing my speed with portraits cause i'm the slowest artist alive, but i'm getting there D=

Last few speed sketches at obscene hours of the day

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

It's almost 6am and I am in full character design mode for the short comic project i'm working on with Kaitlin.

It's always nice to flex my design muscles, but also focus on diversity outfits etc. I've tried to keep the designs simple because they need to be easily recognisable on the page (without confusing the reader / viewer) annddd there's lots going on with lots of characters on the same page at the same time so each character needs to 'pop' but not for the wrong cluttered reasons.

Not sure if that makes sense... its 6am. HERE THEY ARE

Week 49: Thinking, Waving, Weird Sculpting

This is FUN.

Touché 2D, you have taken over my life.

Task 7: Character Thinking

THIS was definitely a lot tricker than I thought it would be... sneak animators island...

Learnings are...that I DEFINITELY need to be more patient AND pay more attention to my timing. But I also need to make sure i'm blocking out the key poses - which I haven't really been doing. A bit of exaggeration wouldn't go a miss either!
Task 8: Flour Sack Waving

Task 9: Flour Sack Jumping

Speed Sculpt day 5 & 6! Trying to be a bit more creative...

Brushes, Bricks and Balls

Speed Sculpt Day 2:

Did this in 20 mins using Dynamesh... my main aim was to see what I could achieve in this time and see where I lag / faff around, as as per usual its with trying to add in as much detail as possible too soon, and I didn't even achieve this haha. I need to get better at blocking rough shapes then building on these

Speed Sculpt Day 3:

Done in about 35 mins - quick attempt at my face taking learnings from yesterday, like using the move and mask tools better, and the move brush.

Speed sculpt day 4: A slow and unfinished version of the Dr himself, Mr Peter Capaldi. I must commit to finishing these. But again, learning new things as I go along. This was about 25 mins. A sloppy 25 mins I must admit.

And my Animators Island for Task 3:

Decided to add in the ball as well to push myself a bit and get better with timing.

Getting less rusty on the principles, and visualising testing things  a lot more, especially where weight is concerned!
Annnddd here's Task 4: Simple character head turn!

Task 5: Character head turn with anticipation 

Task 6: Character Blinking - which oddly enough I found more tricky. Slowing stuff down always is

Z's, Brushes and Zomething else

After a mini (2 month) hiatus, i've been reacquainting myself with ZBrush!

This is the ridiculous result. I just had to remind myself of the hotkeys etc and I was mucking around with Dynamesh which is something I didn't use in my last ZBrush stint.

I plan on doing a speed paint a day for the next month alongside my 2D animation shit so hopefully this time next month i'll see some massive improvements in my skill and speed, as well as my creative ideas. Need to break out of the face sculpting bubble!

This is a couple of months old, but i'm reposting it to remind myself that I can actually sculpt. ha

Also pulling together some rough sketches for the comic project. Kaitlin's asked me to put the breaks on this one for the meantime and to focus on a project that's shorter which i'm going to start work on tonight after day 2 of my animation challenge.

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UPDATE:

MORE BOUNCING BALLS!

Week 48: Bouncing, Balls and Bawling

alas the animation journey ceases to be over, and as mentioned all year i'm working on getting my 2D animation up to scratch with the help of one Miss Natasha Dudley and Animators Land.

I'm going completely back to basics to make sure I don't pick up any bad habits, and we're going to be doing daily / weekly sessions. So hopefully in a few weeks I can start work on the 2D project ive got in mind.

For now, I present BOUNCING BALLS... my first attempt is definitely shameful, but a fair (still shocking) warm up i'd say...






Other projects in the pipeline:
- Comic with Kaitlin, Natasha and a few other peoples
- 2D animation project
- 3D animation project - this will be a bit trickier when it comes to rendering but i'll tackle that when I get to it.

Week 47: Girl Lunar Explorer

Alas, my final film is complete:


I've also pulled together a breakdown reel and my show reel for the upcoming Master Show.





I guess next steps for me are to now SLEEP for a very long time, and start working on my 2D animation skills and tests which Natasha has kindly offered to help me with.

Many as huzzah was had by all!!

Victory

After 8 months of high-jinx and tomfoolery I have finally finished my final film...

that is all.

Week 46: Edits and Credits

EDITING EDITING EDITING with Sushma's kind guidance ! It's nice to have an extra set of eyes because mine are official crossed and lacking sleep.

Fingers crossed all editing will be finished by Friday (not much to tweak, woohoo!) and should also have the credits done in the next couple of days to render everything out and pretend this was all a confusing dream. :D

Why Sleep When You Can COMPOSITE

Haaaaa it is 7am and I have FINALLY finished all compositing / colour correcting... considering I don't even have that much in there effects wise its taken a hell of a long time. Standard slowness... although I think the unexpected tracking probably had something to do with it haaa

Some completed shots I was using for colour correction reference! 

Maybe I should sleep.