Trex storyboard
When I look back at my first project I can remember feeling excited at
how I was going to animate something through the simple use of frame-by-frame
animation. At first I researched a little on the history of animation
stretching all the way back to Edward Muybridge who was one of the chief
pioneers in the early developments of animation through movement of separate
images. Originally I had planned to animate a small boy playing with dinosaurs
but had to reduce it to one character which featured my Trex roaring in the
metro centre which was my interpretation of displaying a child acting out their
imagination in a public place.
African storyboard
I found this project very fun to experiment with especially when it came
to developing the characters from my trip to the Hancock museum. I particularly
liked creating the scripts deciding what I could do with characters and giving
them individual personalities such as the mummy Istari being stubborn and the
velociraptor being optimistic. It took me a while to figure out how I would
mask a pattern on to my elephant that would look like a curtain design but
luckily I was able locate one on a image search and use it to overlay him in
Photoshop giving him his colourful appearance. I still wish I could of produced
the other two scripts I had in mind then again I could always save them for a
future idea.
Metamorphosis
With this project I found it quite challenging especially since it was
my first time properly animating something in Cinema4D. I’ll admit it took me a
while to remember the steps to fully render the characters with the key points
but I eventually got the hang of it along with using the mask and alpha
channels to upload the images. Still to this day I’m a little disappointed that
I didn’t get round to inserting the sound effects even though it did turn out
ok in the end.
Another interesting part of this project that I really enjoyed was the
metamorphosis of animals into vehicles such as my rhino and dragonfly that were
both morphed in to a helicopter and tank. It was through this little experiment
that I was introduced to Dragonframe where by using a digital camera to take
separate photos of the images I could make a quick small animation sequence
through the frames. I believe I still need more practise with how to use a
digital camera.
Digital skills
I found this project immediately interesting since it allowed me to
bring forth one of my own personal characters and experiment on his appearance.
At first I was taken through the steps of how to use illustrator where I
produced a dancing hippo made out of circles then a digital version of Flobby
the stork based on my sketches. I was introduced on how to build a 3D character
in Cinema4D and how to rig it so that it would walk, I found it quite
challenging at building him first from dot to dot but got the hang of it, the
main problems that I had real difficulty with was animating the skeleton
attached to the model with the joints not forming properly and the hidden gaps
that didn’t close where I wanted them to. As for my end result I was able to
animate him a little with his legs being dragged along the path. Then there’s
the second part of the project where I was able to bring forth my secondary
villain Grill the gorilla through three comic strips along with additional CAAD
sessions. I found producing the story with Grill more appealing than using
Cinmea4D since I found difficulty with the many icons to remember. I still
regret not being able to edit the entire comic in to a full volume since I
never got the original sketches back. Overall I did find the entire project fun
although I still have trouble remembering the steps to animating.
Ghost story worked
based learning
I really liked working on this project because it allowed me to
experiment on how I could bring forth a character from a descriptive text,
which resulted in my three ghost pics. When the ghost character was described
with having an evil sneering feline face I immediately tried drawing a concept
with a combination of Charles burns style and the cat faced vampires from buffy
the vampire slayer. I look at my shadow at the window pic now and believe I
could of done much better with the shadowy aura surrounding it.
Character design
Once again just like digital skills I especially liked this project
since it allowed me to bring forth another one of my personal characters this
one being my secondary villain with a full backstory and personality. After
researching a while I settled on the design used for Disney’s tarzan film
combined with a robotic arm to fully illustrate Grill the Gorilla. I was also
able to experiment with the tone scheme to see which one would best suit him.
Coming up with the story didn’t take me too long since I have had the idea in
my head since I was seven after being inspired from watching Ape from George of
the Jungle and your traditional villains from multiple cartoon shows such as
the PowerPuff Girls and Action Man.
Alternative
techniques
I look back at this project and still believe I could of done much
better if it weren’t for the time restraints. I could have easily produced a watercolour
version of grill with an amateur 3D model in Cinema4D with my current skills. I
was at least able to create two separate versions with different software’s
such as Photoshop and illustrator accompanied by a hand drawn original sketch.
Compositing
Looking back at this project I would say this was my most challenging
work yet. Animating a frame by frame sequence in Photoshop easy, moving a 3D
object in Cinema4D somewhat tricky with the multiple icons to remember and
using the tools in Aftereffects very difficult. In all honesty I am very
unfamiliar with how to use Aftereffects even though I’ve obviously used it
twice I have never been able to produce something more professional with it
leading to many export and import mistakes.
With Cinema4D on the other hand slowly learning to merge objects with a
surrounding building proved to be quite interesting especially when I was able
to make a donut shape placed around Big Ben. I really preferred the 2D compositing where I
developed two animations of a giant octopus raising from the river Tyne and the
evolution of a raptor that were both made through Photoshop. To help construct
these animations I produced a spider diagram that feature the basic story
plots the quest, tragedy, rags to riches, overcoming the monster, voyage and
return and rebirth. This led me to produce three scripts overcoming the monster
which featured the kraken rising from the river, rebirth that showed the
evolution of a raptor in to a bird and the voyage and return was ment to have a
giant flying creature soaring down the river but due to time pressure I only
produced two.
Contextual studies
When it comes to writing essays I always find them challenging to build.
Although this time I was allowed to make one based on a topic I was interested
in such as storyboarding, screenwriting and concept design. To help structure
this document I used the aid of a college essay-building guide that took me
through each of the steps such as the similarities, differences and conclusion.
I also found the development quite intriguing since it allowed me to look at
the differences between live action and animation such as BBC’s Walking with
Dinosaurs series and the Ice age film franchise.
Personal and
professional development
Looking through this project allows me to see the development and
evolution of how far my work has come since I started in first year being taught
the multiple new styles and digital techniques used to produce
animations/illustrations. Given a full check over of my work I would say that
illustration is more of my strong point then animation due to the multiple
steps to remember in rigging a 3D character. But it has also taught me to
really search for and use new styles to work with outside my comfort zone. I
also found researching the skillset website quite helpful since It allowed me
to look out for job opportunities there are that I could put my skills to good
use along with weeding out my weakness’s that need to be overcome. Accompanied
by this there are several ways I can display my artwork apart from Facebook and
my blog by searching for local competitions I could put my work forward to show
others my skills, get inspiration from others and gain clients attention.
Work based learning
Recently looking back at this project I have found it very interesting
and challenging with piecing together both my former coursework and personal
work in to one book and once again bringing forth my own characters. I was really
hoping to fully publish my book professionally but due to complications with
the computer I was forced to resort printing out a mock up version. The other
exciting thing that I liked about this project was reediting two of my
childhood sketches and portraying somewhat more live like versions of them.
Within in my original plans I was intending to produce them with watercolours
but it didn’t work so I enacted plan B by editing them on Photoshop.
This also allowed me to list down my strengths, weaknesses and area of
improvement to work on; mainly more practise is required on the software’s of
Cinema4d and Aftereffects.
Then there’s the final work for the live brief where I chose to reedit two of my childhood sketches that were two dragons Shadow and Auroraus who represent light and darkness. For inspiration I looked up an artist known as Mimi Launders who produces illustrations of animals through the use of pencil sketches then balanced out through shades of bright and darkened tones. Originally I planned on using this style combined with watercolours to bring forth my newly illustrated dragons but it didn’t exactly work out the way I planned so as a backup plan I had them coloured in on Photoshop portrayed in an environment that would best suit their nature such as a treasure filled cave and flying in the sky.
Commercial
animation and illustration
Looking back through this project I would say I am both proud of my
accomplishments and disappointed in some of my unfinished work. Reflecting
through every project has allowed me to see what needs to be improved and what
is just fine as the way it is. My main strengths lie in illustration being able
to produce detailed characters and storyboards whereas my animation skills
could be somewhat better if I pushed myself to practise more on the digital
software’s of cinema4D, Aftereffects and Premier.
Strengths
· Detailed drawing
skills
· Storyboarding
· Character building
· Experienced in
Photoshop and Illustrator
· Script writing
· Organised
· Working
independently/ as part of a team
· Watercolouring
· Communication
skills
Weaknesses
· Not fully used to
using new software such as Cinema4D, Aftereffects and premier.
· Still attempting
use styles and techniques outside my comfort zone.
· Producing
backgrounds some angles and distances are out of sync.
· Remembering the
steps of rigging a character in Cinema4D
Areas of
improvement
· Once again search
for new styles and techniques to look for inspiration and getting out of my
comfort zone
· Push myself to
practise more with experiments in Cinema4D, Aftereffects and Premier to get the
hang of using the tools.
· Go out to look for
backgrounds to sketch and experiment on.
· Upload more both of
my personal work and coursework on Facebook.
· Search for more art
competitions to enter.
