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...

Week 28: That time when I didnt sleep (again)

The things I do for comics.

Currently on the tail end of a 30hour being awake session, and I owe this latest sleep deprivation to Dee-Con (and mainly my procrastination). I have FINALLY (dialogue not included... oops) finished my first finished comic haaa to hand in today for print ^_^.

I started it weeks ago but casually decided to a avoid colouring (which seems to be a running trend), but after realising I had 4 days to finish it I got some wise tips from Yannis and set on my journey to comic mayhem.

I decided to re-ink all 11 pages with the new brushes I aqcuired because I really wasn't happy with the previous brush and inconsistencies. Super happy with this one and managed to get it done over 2 nights. THe last 2 nights I have been colouring and eating large bowls of food and rewatching Kimmy Schmidt in order to stay awake. Success!

I think im a little too tired to assess how I feel about the outcome of it right now ha, looking at it again this morning I saw lots of still mistakes I made when I was half asleep so I wonder if i'll see more when i've finally slept lol.

But here's one of the pages i'm really happy with.. this also happens to be the first page, when I was at my most awake.

Compositing, Comics and Comeuppances

We had a class with Malcolm on Friday on compositing in After Effects. 

The set up is so similar to Photoshop (and it's so much easier to grasp than Nuke) that i'll probably use this for my compositing for my project and multi passes - although Nuke does have a strong allure.

I also think using AE will cut down time because I won't be spending my hours and mind figuring out Nuke.

But that's another thought for another day!

I've also finally finished all the rough pencil lines for my comic! Got them done in about 4 days which i'm really happy with. So now i'm ready to ink all the pages and i'm hoping to have this done by mid week - i've already started work so i've only got about 7 more to go.

I've really been trying to incorporate my perspective studies and what I've been learning about cinematography into this. I've definitely go heaps to learn, but as a first stab at an actually completed comic/story i'm really happy with it.

And then on to texturing... i've been watching a few toon shade tutorials and I want to work on some testing this weekend, so screenshots and rant will definitely follow...

I really need to get my head in the game with texturing properly - part of me is still trying to ignore it and but it off, but it's really setting me back so I just need to crack on with it. O_O

Croissants, Comics and Pumpkins

OK, so i've had a very very arty weekend and have decided I really need to pull my art shite together (comic in particular), so i've pulled together a schedule and given myself 3 weeks to complete it (lollll).

Current working title is Photosynthesis and the plot is short and simple I think. My main character (new working name of Lily) is VERY Toph (The Last Airbender) and Chihiro (Spirited Away) influenced, and it took me a couple of days to work on a design but i'm happy with what i've got atm! Simplicity!

Got a couple of panels done, but really need to tighten up my story before I go any further. Taking a much more different approach to this than I usually would because of time. Normally I try to complete a whole panel (inks, colours etc) before moving on, but I get so hung up on that then end up stopping, so i'm just gonna have all my pages sketched and inked in the next week and half (haaaaa) before colours etc.

Again I want to keep it all as simple as possible for now - especially juggling it with Going Live and my final project, but i'm hoping to develop it once i've got more time :).

Even if I don't finish it in time it would still be nice to finally have a finished comic project haha.

Playlist and development inspiration for said comic is mostly side 2 of The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness (In The Arms of Sleep being my favourite). It's also the influence for my character's name Lily. There's also some Laura Marling thrown in.

Comic Relief, Digital Propaganda, Animation 101

I Heart Comics
I've been looking at comics and games for a source of inspiration for my environment work - in general and for my final project. Although my project will be in a space setting I want to make sure my style is consistent - especially my line work and painting technique.

I've been looking at the artwork from Saga (Fiona Staples), Captain Marvel (Dexter Soy) Deadly Class (Wes Craig), I Kill Giants (JM Ken Niimura) and Low (Greg Tocchini).

I love Staple's painting style and palette, and if I do go 2D then I think this style could would really well without detracting too much from the rest of the animation.

Saga

Massive fan of Soy and Craig's layouts and compositions. There's obviously a lot more to them then will be involved in my project, but I think his work would be a good starting point for my personal comic project.

Captain Marvel

Deadly Class

Niimura's lines are some of my favourites, and this will probably be more reflected in personal projects!

I Kill Giants

Ahhh Low is stupidly beautiful, like stupidly, and Tocchini's work is just ridiculous. I'll definitely be studying his work and aiming to inject the same elegance into my personal and final project

Low

Digital vs. Traditional
If I go 2D, i've been weighing up whether or not to animate traditionally via pencil and scans, or work completely digitally... I'm more than comfortable with both, but i'm a LOT quicker digitally and I think I get get more done and be more versatile.

I've already ruled out using GIMP (although i'll still practice using it) - it has massive lag issues and considering my time-scale i'd be a lot more confident using Photoshop to produce all my lines precisely and effectively... Photoshopm is my friend.

Line Testing
Speaking of my friend Photoshop, i've been doing a little bit of very rough line testing. Photoshop's timeline/animation feature s very handy for testing, but I definitely won't be using it for my full animation.

I've still got heaps to learn, but i'll definitely be practising over Christmas, especially because I want to achieve much smoother and cleaner frame transitions.

Comics, Concepts & Character design

The last 2 days have been VERY beneficial and creative for me.

We had Monty Nero come in to talk to us about conceptual art / design and a little bit about his comic and the art of story telling - these are the 2 things that i've been trying to work on (to no avail) so it was great to some information first hand.

These are the key tips i'll be sticking to this year:

• Be accurate and think through (think/work in 3D)
• Think about your characters as functioning people - their background, goals, attitude etc
• Find solutions to the ideas you don't like
• Once you have your final design have fun and redesign it for potential new ideas
• If you're struggling with what your character is like, come up with what they AREN'T like

I've already started to apply these to my personal comic project, and it's helped me to start brainstorming and designing for my 2D and 3D character design project. I'm wanting my design to link into my final project in semester 3 so i'm starting to think of ways for the 2 projects to progress together a potential story. 

So far my strongest ideas are:

• The role of animation in depicting what happens to the body upon hearing music
• The role of animation in depicting movement in space (as in outer space)

I'm going to develop this over the next couple of weeks and the character for this, so hopefully would have decided by the time I submit my contextual review and project proposal.

As music will play a really important in my project i've also started to update my playlist - so far the track i've added really fit the mood and emotion i'm hoping to achieve (as random as they may seem!)