Oh, you know that project I mentioned...?

I'm blogging again. Its been a while since I last did but its not that I've fallen out of the habit or that I've lost interest, its mostly because I haven't had anything to write about and that I've just been kinda busy...with that project.

...You remember it right...

...maybe...?

Ok its my fault for saying so little about it in the fist place. Anyway a larger portion of the time was spent through drawing practice (yes more of that) which had been aimed at capturing a style and improving anatomy. I'll admit progress has been kinda slow deterred mostly by the need to find a flat for the coming year but things have escalated a bit sine then. Here are some of my studies.





The photography is kinda dodgy but I hope this gives you an idea of what I was going for.

I think, looking at this stuff, my human anatomy is definitely improving but I'll have to diligently keep this up if I want things to stay this way. Once I had grasped a style I could then gravitate towards some character concepts. More examples below.





Anyway that's a small portion of the work I've done so far. I'll try to keep this blog up to date with progress. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. : D











Ok I want to do some interesting stuff now

I haven't done any of my own animation work recently...and I just realised I've really begun to miss it.

There was a time when I would come into the animation studio from nine in the morning (when it opened) till late evening just because I wanted to. I'm in the midst of doing a couple of animations on Maya so I should actually try and finish them. I'm annoyed at myself for slipping out of this habit.

Oh and I must do more hand drawn animation. Ok its hard...but oddly kinda fun...

Oh, oh, oh annnnd I've started work on something big. I'll be exploiting my free time in the summer hols to get it truly grounded. Hopefully when I've got to a decent point I'll start to blog some of it....



...I'll keep you posted.

Ok, Finished

We finnished it a couple of days ago actually.

Say Yes, Say No Title Sequence

So there it is. Over all I think we did pretty good. The pacing is nice, it has a good uniform sense of continuity (it's not unnecessarily sporadic) and the animation is relatively smooth with just enough jitter to compliment the hand-made appeal. Vwalah!

Fluffy Mugs!

Ok so since my last post we've progressed pretty far since. We've almost finished the final cut...then there's just a bit of flapping about on After Effects.
We aren't at that stage yet and anyway I was planning to talk a bit about the fluffy mugs I had to make for the animation.

You get the idea...

I made these for the animation as after all it is about the DADA movement and one of the artists at the time like to make fluffy cutlery so tadaah! They are made out of pieces of Tropicana juice boxes, fake fur, thread, glue and staples. Oh and they were sprayed with hair spray so that when they were handeled in the animation prosses the fur would not shift. If I had not done that the fur would just appear to flinch and twitch randomly as if on their own accord. Ya see? I thinks about these things.

I should maybe try talking a little more about how we've been working. Well this stop motion animation works on four tears. The bottom is a sheet of rotating newspaper which, as we can rotate in a loop, easily gives the illusion of an endless stream of newspaper. The next three tears consist of glass. We then place the props on the glass an animate them accordingly. Above that is the camera stand.
Usually when we get round to the actual animation one person is in charge of the camera, another animating the props and the third person rotates the newspaper. We then swap round every so often. And that dudes is our method.

Hay Blog. Long time no see.

Ok so its been a looooooong time since I last created a post but I'm here again.
Anyway my feeble excuse for this is that I haven't been able to document my work with a camera as I couldn't charge the battery. (Yesss, feeble, I know, but a blog can be so boring without awesomness to look at.) Anyway I now have a charger in my possession and the new time my group an I congregate to continue with the project I can start taking photos. Huzzah!

Yeah...I should probably briefly sum up what the project is. My group and I have to create a film title sequence. And that's it. Although I should probably add the title sequence is for a nonexistent film called Say Yes Say No about DADA artists within the time of the DADA arts movement so we've gotta consider things like the period this occurred, the music they would have listened to and so forth. You get the idea.


Anyway this is what we've cooked up so far. Its very late in the process as this is a rough cut but I'll do more analogy stuff in my next blog when I've got some visual awesomness to back it up.




Besides this I had begun my own little animation project on Maya a while back but I haven't touched it for a while, plus I've had a couple of other ideas for extra things I want to do. I really enjoy doing my own stuff on the side so I'm going to work on it and blog my stuff over the summer.

Anyway that just it for now.

The Third and the Seventh.

Such a wonderful piece of film.

Concept Art

If there is one thing I've always loved its concept art. Its fascinating. If I ever get a film with extras I will always check out the concept work. Its an art that tests the imagination which also makes it so enjoyable to do. My most recent drawing assignment was to produce three concept pieces. I was allowed to draw what ever I wanted as long as I followed the theme of scale the idea being that I could for example draw something disproportionately small like a tiny elephant fleeing from a mouse or disproportionately too large. This was too fun!
Have a gander.

I love anything with a steampunk theme so this was inevitable

The tribe's hunters launched into the clearing just before the tiny hairless primate could disappear from view

It was an epic battle of great proportions

Anyway that's my concept work. Its been a while since I've done much with a biro so I thought I'd give it a go. Right, its 3:010 in the morning and I haven't actually slept since posting my last blog....oh and this blog will probably say its a completely different time of day...and when I created this blog I did state that I was from the UK. I'll have to check those setting anyway.

...I should probably make an attempt at sleeping now...