Week 21: Art, Anatomy and Audio...

Well, this course is definitely more than just an animation journey for me, as i've probably mentioned heaps of times, I really wanted to also use this year to drastically develop my artistic skills and mind set.

It's only been a few months an i've already noticed massive improvements as a result of drawing every day. I've always loved anatomy but i'm looking at it in different ways and understanding how/why things move like they do, and anticipating where they will go (especially if I can't see something in a reference) - rigging has also helped me visualise this so much.

I've become more relaxed in the way I create, my forms are less stiff, and it's beginning to look like my drawings are actually doing actions, they're much less static. Music has definitely become a much bigger influence as well, and the more i've researched the more useful i'm finding it. Playlists everywhere.

Before

Now

I've also developed more of a stylised style which i'm really liking thanks to my character design for my project, and feel like it's helping me lay down sketches a lot quicker. By doing quick daily studies, i'm worrying less about whether is it's 100 anatomically correct and more about the placement of limps, and forms and what they're doing.

Photoshop and I are getting on better than ever, i'm making more brushes, and using them in different ways. I'm still trying out different colouring techniques. I've found one that works for my portraits but now I want to find a style that works well for my illustrations and comics. That fact that i'm even producing more illustrative styles is good. Importantly, if I haven't been happy with something, i'm now not afraid to scrap it and start again.

But most importantly i've definitely grown in confidence when it comes to my art, not that I wasn't before, but more i'm confident to tackle things i've never really done, like designing animals, objects etc. I'm finding that i'm doing heaps more research for this kind of thing now instead of going straight to drawing and not really planning ahead. I'm doing a lot off problem solving and finding different ways to approach issues that usually would have stopped me from progressing with certain pieces.

Wolves of Slava's final project

My comic (and final project) are my priorities at the moment, especially the one for Dee, which I need to start thinking about and developing now. it's going to be tight but if I fit it in to my daily drawing then it should be fine ;)

I even got a snazzy certificate for being a nerd and doing 100 hours worth of drawing in a few weeks.

Courtesy of http://www.quickposes.com/

Model Behaviour

I've been doing a bit of environment modelling for our Going Live project, and i'm finding it very useful in terms of preparing for modelling my own environment for my personal project.

Also had a stab at modelling plants O_O I'm sure there's a much better way to do it in terms of workflow but i'm quite please with the results!

I'm going to be looking at a few tutorials to make sure I can really nail the planet / space atmosphere. I'll be finalising the design, the assets and modelling next week! Need to make sure it doesn't get left behind.

I've also been working on my Pre Vis - its my firsts one so I looked around online for a few tips, and i've watched the one Amit made for Going Live more than a few times. My main aim was to create something quickly so I could focus more on the key framing.

I looked into creating it in SketchUp (for some reason i thought Maya would take longer....), it's quite a powerful tool and it's starting to be used for Pre-Vis's, but I found it was taking a lot longer - especially re-acquainting myself with it to use for this particular thing.

I don't think I have the time right now to sit and work on it properly, and using Maya will help me achieve the angles I want a lot quicker, and I can make the assets super quick - instead of importing rough one from the SketchUp Warehouse.

Until next time SketchUp

Quickly modelled my terrain and main assets. Also did a quick not very god bind of my character to move around.. I say move very lightly. She is currently eyeless cause they wont move with her body. I'll figure it out.

The cave was a lot tricker and I ended up just using a series of planes... i'll keep finding a way to model this properly. But thinking about my camera angles you don't actually see the outside of the cave... just the inside, so I can probably get around modelling the whole thing =D

LOL - cave madness... looks like a burnt out shack.

Feeling Rather Flash...

Sooooo i've been working on a new animatic with my new storyboard! I wanted to go a bit further with this one than I did with my previous one so I decided to start getting back into flash.

Haven't used it in a while, let alone made an animatic so it took a while to get back into the swing of it. And I had to remind myself that it didn't need to be perfect visually (to stop me spending days on it!)


It's reminded me how important it is to stick to my timing! I made a few tweaks in Premier Pro and left a few long gaps for the dance sequence... which i've yet to choreograph ha...but i've got room for it to be at least 1 min - there's potential for longer, but I definitely want the whole thing to stick below 2.5 mins.

The audacity if animating...

Haaaaa today was my first try at 3D animating haaaa (not including the rotating solar system lol). What did we animate? the classic bouncing ball!!

Tbh it was a lot easier than I though it would be - i've been spending a bit of time in the Graph Editor and with the deformers for rigging purposes so i'm a bit familiar with it. So far i've found that it will require a lot of attention to detail, patience, sugar and PRACTICE.

I'm planning on getting in at least a month of solid practice (thanks to Going Live and my personal time) ahead of animating my character - the dance sequence will be the tricky part, bit i've made it easier on myself by making her more stylised and using a squash and stretch rig, so I don't have to worry about completely anatomically correct poses.

I'll be going to a dance drawing class every week which is perfect and will get into the mind set of making those types of movements as well as drawing them. I'm also hoping to get the choreography nailed by that point too.

Huzzah.

Wolves, Working, Whimsical Sounds

I've been working on some wolf designs for Slava's final project Fall of the Wolf.
Its been a while so I spent time drawing anything other than human's so i've been doing lots of warming up / scribbles.

I find it easier to approach this in the same way I would with humans - know the anatomy and build up from there. I've been working from photos - here's the references i've been using - to understand their structure, and from there i'll start to stylise into a character based on what Slava has said.

I also pulled together a playlist to help gather my ideas and inspirations. I've also been doing some wolve /pup studies

These are the digital designs of the wolves!

This has been really fun to do! It's nice to turn my art hands to something none human. It also gives me the chance to try out different texturing styles in Photoshop. Since working on my character i've been really working on creating more stylised illustrations, still a long way to go till I find my style, but i'm having fun doing it!
UPDATE: I'm going to be doing some tweaks to the mother wolf design. Slava's suggested that I look at The Secret of Kells for inspiration into how they stylised their wolves, so i'm gonna work on making the designs a bit blockier, but also make sure they're feminine and feisty!

UPDATE 2:
I've re-designed Slava's mother wolf based on her feedback, but also a slightly new visual direction that she's taking - based on the work of Chris Sanders.

I've also been working on some concept art for Amit's final project. Pulling together the storyboard this weekend.

Spinerette has been my playlist of choice for this, again with some Porcupine Tree.

Colour Me not so clueless

I've been working on my colour script, I really needed to make some final decision on my colours and textures (to much umming and ahhing)

I kind of had an idea of the scheme I was going for, but still wanted to use Adobe Colour CC to make sure I was using complimentary shades and tones. There are a couple of things like the plant at the end that break up the colours, and I wanted to make sure they did this without throwing everything off. Also needed to make sure my character stands out from the background

These are the colours i've gone with:

And here is my (first ever) colour script capturing key scenes from my story. Huzzah.

Still need to pull together my animatic and 3D previs... which might take a bit more time. Will also be working a new storyboard for Amit's project.

I'm also in full storyboarding mode for other projects - i've been pulling together the one for our Going Live project, i'm also working one one for Amit's final project.

The process is really getting me thinking about more than just drawing. Storyboarding is really helping me to explore and understand the importance of angles, scenes and key pieces of narrative. I'm definitely getting quicker at doing them (I think my anatomy practice is helping my create poses much quicker).

Week 20: Housekeeping

So i've been doing a bit of housekeeping to make sure all my pre-production is in check to get me ready for my production at the end of February. Ideally i'd like to get started earlier than that, but with the Going Live project I need to do a bit of prioritising.

I've re-drafted my script just to tighten it up a bit.

I've also been doing a bit of research on cinemtography (and using notes from last semester) to re-draft my storyboard. I worked on our group one for Going Live and have taken on board some of the changes to help influence how I go forward with my personal one. I want to make sure all the angles are right (and simple) and that it makes sense!

Cinematography of 2014 from Jacob T. Swinney on Vimeo.


I've also been looking at Duncan Jones's Moon to get a few tips for angles in a space setting!


I'm aiming to have the colour script with the help of Adobe Colour CC and a revised animatic also finished this week. I've asked Natasha to take a look t it cause its good to get a second pair of eyes on it and she's great with this stuff. I want to start a 3D visualisation over the weekend, then I need to get a wriggle on with the environment.

I'll be working on the environment modelling for our Going Live project because I really wanted to use this as a chance to practice and get myself ready to work on it for my final project. 
I'm aiming to work both projects side by side - so when i'm working on the GL environment, I want to work on the environment for my one, same with assets, texturing, lighting etc. And with my rigging already done, hopefully by the end f the month I can kick off testing and production. My animation skills will hopefully be decent by then too!
OH and i've also come up with a provisional title Girl Lunar Explorer - based on a song of the same name by Melora Creager. The lyrics also really fits the story ^_^
UPDATE (30/01/15)
After speaking to Natasha i've revised a couple of my panels so they make more sense! She's suggested The scene where my character comes out of the space pod and looks around will only work properly if she's still in shot for the 360 view - otherwise it might confuse the viewer which totally makes sense.  Here's a few lol-worthy examples courtesy of Michael Bay.




My updated shots and my full storyboard.

Final Storyboard