Joel Trussel - The First Time I Ran Away.

The First Time I Ran Away.

"The First Time I Ran Away," is a wonderful, what I believe to be 2D -2.5D animation by Joel Trussel.
The video starts off with a wonderfully illustrative title, addressing the name of the video in a wonderful "quirky" style of typography. The video then leads onto the scene of a forest-like nature, where what appears to be a little Native American man (Aztec?) walks his llama through the forest, and into a mountain cart, visiting an elder from what looks like his community, with wonderful shapes, swirls and almost 3 dimensional looking patterns splitting up the screen which match the soft acoustic music insanely well. 
  The delightfully calm and mellow music video caught my attention mainly because of the style of his work. As I found that a lot of animations I tend to look at either don't match my style of art at all, or are in 3D. The soft pastel colours create a dim and dank looking atmosphere but are uplifted through the music and storyline of the animation. I took most notice of the scenery that was created in the animation, as that is an aspect I struggle with the most, and looking into creating designs for animations which could have little to no outline and are distinguished by colour is something I would like to look into.

Project 3: Research into Mixed Media Idents- MTV Poland

This ident was made to be broadcasted on MTV Poland. And it consists of a number of slow panning shots around a site in the country-side. It starts off with a CGI’d piece of plastic/fabric twisting and turning over the edge of a lake. It continues to transform until it turns into a set of speakers, obiously to relate back to the MTC company. As it is doing this, the water makes a small ripple, which escalates into a smal tidal wave.

There are a number of techniques thatused in this animation. One of those techniques is the effect of the water, and making it move and contort. The most popular way to do this would be to create a plane on cinema 4D or something similar, and editing that plane, being able to pull and twist the plane which can make a ripple/movement effect on the water. The way that the stereo would be created would be to make the stereo first, and the go to morph and change the look of it by adding effectors such as the twister tool, and then reversing the footage in order to make the morph turn back into the stereo.

This ident caught my attention imediately, for a different reason than a normal MTV advert would. The fact that this ident is rather tranquil and has a set colour scene rather than as many as one could possibly try and get, just makes the video stand out more against all the other idents, making it a very clever choice. There isnt too much to focus on in this ident, which can work very well in  its favour, as the animators can focus more attention on the remaining pieces of animation. Because of this, the animated counterparts are so crisp, clear and realistic and eye catching.  have been 

Project 4: Research into Mixed Media Idents - Sang Yup Kim

MTV – Sang Yup Kim

This ident, I thought was probably one of the more time consuming idents that I’d seen. I starts as what

 appears to be in the inside of a body, with organs and skin and cells all pulsing and moving around. The camera then zooms out of the inside of the body to show the audience what was on the outside. It shows this small, shiny and rather angry looking creature who resembles a heart. The heart promptly explodes after the camera has steadied for about half a second, to reveal the MVT logo inside of it.

I can tell straight away from this ident that it is in full 3D animation, and has had a lot of attention put purely on how this creature looks. The heart will have been sculpted probably from a simple sphere and can be torn apart easily from making the object editable. The background is also very simple, if it has been shot in live footage then I will just be a white screen backdrop used usually for photography. However, this kind of space can be created digitally too by making a plane and curving and shaping it until it resembled a ski slope like shape. Putting simple spot lights in front of the creature will also cast great shadows on the background and make it looks quite realistic.

I think this ident is great to attract attention from audiences of all ages. It’s got that half cute/half gross factor about it which is always appealing to users specifically on the internet. I love the detail and shine effect that the heart has and it also drops a big bomb on the audience when the little monster blows up. It’s also got a lot of humour placed in this ident as well as a little shock, as when the monster bursts, his teeth and eyes just fall onto the floor leaving the skin to blow away, which I think will engage the audience well. 

Project 3: Research into Mixed Media Idents - Digital Cinema Media

To begin my project I went to look at a number of previous versions, created by and for the company. There were a number of still images that were used in the 2013 ident which really caught my eye, a few of them being very abstract. The overall feeling that I got from this advert wasn’t necessarily a range of emotions, but one rather fierce emotion. Throughout the entire advert I got the feeling of awe, excitement, serenity and pride, which, as a marketing technique, appeared to be very effective! In all of the mini-scenes, the two elements of the scenes are very contrasting, both in colour and content. This adds such a dynamic feel to the ident, like literally send shivers up the spine and goose bumps up my arms. This shows that the content has been very carefully chosen;

Although the mini-scenes only last maybe 2 – 3 seconds each, the viewers get a good glimpse of what’s going on. In this scene, the background is a time lapsed view of a mountain range, complete with cloud coverage. The clouds have a flowing and blustery motion which sets the direction and speed of the scene. The scene within the logo has therefore got something to be timed to, the choice of footage was smart because it contrasts visually with the other footage, both in colour and content. The footage of the grass blowing in wind matches the background footage, and it is generally at the same speed that the clouds are moving as well. The overall tone of the scene is quite peaceful looking, but also has a rather majestic feel to it from the scene of the mountains, the blustery wind, and the paling shot of the grass.

Another scene in the ident which caught my eye was this one. My eyes were immediately drawn to the burst of lava, contrasting against the stark background of the globe which, in turn, morphed into what looked like a control centre on a spaceship. Environmentally, the two pieces are linked through the topic of science and exploration, but also give off the emotions of panic, excitement, power and awe, which relates well to the previous scene. The colours in this scene are really my favourite part of it. With the pale background from the earth, and the dark sky in space, which goes so well to push and emphasise the lava bursting out from the logo. There isn’t as much cohesion with the technicality of the camera, as the globe is turning one way, at a pretty consistent speed, and the lava erupts into the other direction, which throws off the attention of the audience. I think this technique works well though, as it fully puts the attention on the lava.

This frame is my all-time favourite of the whole ident. The scene is probably the least contrasting of all, but still has so much effect on the audience, and is definitely what puts the audience at peace, possibly relating to the “Happy Ending,” of a film. The scene shows the tranquil and serene footage in both the background and the logo, linking them perfectly to the emotion being emitted. The background shows the movement of jellyfish, which slowly bob and flow across the screen, which are so contrasting against the pure black backdrop given that it is very deep in the ocean. I think this works amazingly and the footage is so crystal clear it doesn’t even look real. Inside the logo is footage of the sky being shot out of what I can only assume to be an aeroplane? The sky, like the jellyfish, look so serene and easy going that it definitely brings a sense of calm to the ident. I think there is obviously a lot of technical dedication has gone into this, as underwater and 30,000 foot shots would not be hard to come by. 

Project 4: Week 1 Plan 28/01/2014

Project 4: Compositing.

For this project I have been given the task of developing my animation, compositing and editing skills which will inform my studio practice. This will involve me animating and compositing elements to form a concise series of 3 idents for an intended use of broadcasting. 

Tuesday, 28th of January:

This week I will be brain storming as to what kind of emotions I want to base my 3 idents on, and will be looking into already-made idents of a similar nature. 

Days:	Monday 27th	Tuesday  28th	Wednesday 29th	Thursday  30th	Friday  31st	Saturday 1st	Sunday  2nd
Work to Complete	-	Brief intro and looking into Digital Cinema Media.	Look into and research existing DCM idents - look at last years.	Look into and research existing DCM idents - look at last years.	CAD session and update blog.	Documentation	Reflection.

Mode2; Black Gold of the Sun, (2008.)

Another piece of Mode2’s work that I find inspiring is “Black Gold of the Sun,” done in 2008 which started off as a primary sketch turned painting.

The concept for this piece, I believe, is something that started out as a simple sketch. The image contains the picture of a pregnant woman, from the facial features and shading of the image, it looks as though she is black. The figure is also pregnant, in front of what appears to be a large sun before it sets.

The style of this image is what attracted me to it the most. The main figure in the image is made up of very sketchy and untidy lines. However, as untidy as these lines look, they have been strategically done in order to show shadow, tone and highlights on the females body, which I find very, very effective. The background of this image is also delicately painted

I believe this would inspire and encourage me, when I’m doing pencil sketches, as usually I blend and smudge the lines I draw to make very soft images, and this would be a wonderful change. I feel the style of this piece is illustrative, which automatically is in my good books, as well as it being a single colour scheme, which simplifies the image and gives it an extremely warm feeling, very tribal or even African.

The techniques used in this piece are simple, yet very effective. I believe that the background is made from oil paint and pastel on a canvas, used to create such a warm and glowing feel, usually that associated with motherhood. The drawing on the canvas looks to me as though it was done in either sharpened pastels or coloured pencil, giving off the earthly and wooden feel to the image, which again is associated with tribal influences. This image would definitely influence me in a way the others haven’t because of how this image was done. It started off as an unfinished sketch, which then was went back to after a while and rendered back as a painting. This would definitely influence me to keep any unwanted pieces of work and make them into something actually successful. 

Mode2; Hold Her Tight, (2008.)

Mode2’s 2008 piece, entitled “Hold Her Tight,” is an illustration that I feel would inspire my future work I create for a number of reasons.

The concept behind a number of Mode2’s pieces of work is simple but effective illustrations that portray human figures in different and uncommon positions.

The style of this piece in particular, is rather simplistic, but has an awesome effect on the image. The image is made up of simple lines that don’t appear to have any sketchiness to them, and seem rather continuous, however they do have different thicknesses, giving delicacy and solidarity to the outline of the image.

I feel as though this style is very much something I would like to, and would find easy to replicate. The illustrative style and minimalist colour would be something I could try out on a number on my future works.

The techniques used in this piece are very simple and obvious, the background and lines are made with simple acrylic paints, used to blend and create a colour “scheme,” very successfully, so successfully in fact that it almost looks like it has been done digitally.

I love the way that Mode2 highlights the muscles and tones of the body with pastels and chalk, as it makes them seem more realistic and detailed. And considering highlighting and shading is something I would always like to improve on, it is definitely something I’m now inspired to try out.

I also find that making background objects, like the kettle and the table, into one by not separating them with lines, as it makes them seem less important, and not stick out as much. This works well in an image were everything is very simple and not a lot of detail is needed.

Preparing my Portfolio.

For my portfolio, to take to my interview, I have decided to put a number of pieces of my work up to display my work plans and efforts throughout the two years during my Degree. I aim to take mainly work based, college stuff with me, as that is where I have shown most improvement in. 

I will take my most recent attempt at storyboards, as it is a good example of how my take at colour pallets have improved, as well as using more unrealistic colours on real life objects, to give off the feel of an area. 

I also aim to take my most recent piece of character design, as I feel that it is my most professional looking piece of work in that field. I was able to give in depth information on my character using both artistic and linguistic methods. I looked so much more into colour schemes and tones in these pieces and that's why I think they deserve to be in my Portfolio. 

I also plan on taking with me a character board from last year, which was my first attempt at one. It is almost a polar opposite to my other chosen character board, mainly due to the colours and over all layout of it. I'm really pleased with the quality of this piece and feel that it was one of my favourite pieces of last year. 

This is a screenshot of my first scene from my animation, I plan on taking this with me in my portfolio because it is probably one of the pieces I am most proud of this year. The image quality, layout and colour scheme look, to me, very professional and to a high standard, making it a piece that I want to show off and explain when given the chance. 














I also plan on taking this piece with me in my portfolio, as it is one of the few pieces that I made for my main project last year, during the E4 ident project. I liked the way that this piece looked, as I rarely leave anything with the "half-finished" look, and making it seem rather sketchy and messy, which made me a lot more confident when using this technique in future projects. 

Project 3: Week 8 Reflections.

Week 8 Reflections.

Days:	Monday 13th	Tuesday  14th	Wednesday 15th	Thursday 16th	Friday  17th	Saturday 18th	Sunday  19th
Work to Complete	Export second scene as film.	Set up third scene in After Effects.	Film third scene -	Film third scene and print off documentation.	HAND IN.	-	-

This week I finished off filming my animation and printed out any documentation ready for hand in. 

Monday 13th January: Exported my first and second animations into Quick time movies. Had issues with cinema 4D as it took nearly 5 hours it render.

Tuesday 14th January: I began to set up my third animation, and altered some design flaws with the grass in the forest part. 

Wednesday 15th January: I started to film my third scene. 

Thursday 16th January: I finished my third scene and continued with my documentation. 

Friday 17th January: HAND IN.

Project 3: Final Animations/ Evaluation.

Here, are my two final and finished scenes from my animation. 

The aim of this project was to showcase my skills in a digital format, showing how well I could manage, produce, and eventually display my work in the from of an animation. 

I began this project a little unsure of what I wanted to produce from it, I knew I wanted something rather cute and different, but I wanted it to stick in people's minds, and this is why I added such a bizarre ending. I started off with the intention of creating everything in Cinema 4D, but soon after discovering After Effects I think I knew which one I preferred. I really enjoyed making assets and in particularly, the little walk cycles and loops of my characters, as I really saw them come to life and it gave them a lot more personality, which is what I wanted to show in my animation. 

I did encounter a few problems whilst animating my work, and one of those was finding my way round Cinema 4D: Although I have a basic knowledge of the program, and enjoy using it, I found it extremely difficult and problematic to speed up my workflow and get my way around the system without constantly needing to ask for help. 

I think if I were to do anything differently, I would have done all of my animation scenes on After Effects, as I feel I got on much better on that program and would have got slightly more work done. But I have really enjoyed this project and would like to finish off this animation later on in the year. 

Project 3: Week 8 - Finalising my Animations.

Finalising my Animations.

 This week both at home and at college I was finishing up with my third scene from my animation. Now that I knew what to expect from After Effects, I was quite confident in producing more work in a shorter space of time, and focused on getting the loops of animation as smooth as possible. 

Before that though, I started off by creating PNG files of pieces of scenery in my third scene, that was so that I could take those pieces and just put them straight away into my animation scene and not worry about having to cover pieces up or cutting out any white space. I did this with pathways, stones, trees and grass, and it saved a lot of time when putting all of my pieces together. 

I then focused on making my little fawn character, who meets an awful end towards the end of the animation. I made a small loop of her blinking and eating grass. And then made a 3 frame animation of her getting scared and jumping up to see what's behind her. I took time making this piece of animation because I wanted to emphasise just how timid she is and how reluctant she will be to go on this quest with the raccoon.
I'll also admit I surprised myself with how well she came out, I love how cute she is and how very Bambi-like she seems, which is what I was aiming for.

This is the final product of my work from this week. I got the scene just to how I wanted it and I think it looks cute as hell. I liked the way the colour scheme came out and how everything blends together well. I didn't want this scene to be too bright, put rather pastel and delicate looking, which I think is apparent here. 

Unfortunately, when it came to rendering, one of the files was missing from the animation folder, as I must have saved it onto the computer instead of my hard drive, and this animation didn't get fully rendered, I did, however, hand in everything I'd done for it. 

Project 3: Week 8 Plan - 13/01/14

Project 3: Digital Skills Application.

For this project I have been given the task of showcasing my digital skills by making an animated short, along with any other digital work that I feel shows my skills to their full potential. 

Monday, 13th of January:

This week I will be filming as much as I can of my third scene, finishing up my documentation and handing in my work. 

Days:	Monday 13th	Tuesday  14th	Wednesday 15th	Thursday 16th	Friday  17th	Saturday 18th	Sunday  19th
Work to Complete	Export second scene as film.	Set up third scene in After Effects.	Film third scene -	Film third scene and print off documentation.	HAND IN.	-	-

Project 3: Week 7 Reflections.

Week 7 Reflections.

Days:	Monday 6th	Tuesday  7th	Wednesday 8th	Thursday 9th	Friday  10th	Saturday 11th	Sunday  12th
Work to Complete	Prepare for filming in Cinema 4D.	Set up artificial lighting and surrounds in Cinema 4D ready for filming.	Film SCENE 1 in  cinema  4D	Film SCENE 1 in cinema 4D	CAD session  - keep blog up to date.	Documentation.	Reflection

This week I began the process of drawing out all of the assets I needed for my second scene of my animated short. I went through the process of doing simple sketches and then cleaning them up digitally to look more professional.

Monday 6th January: I finished off my last remaining and last minute assets for scene 1, which was the pathway needed to guide the camera through the woods. I also got to set up the lights and camera settings. 

Tuesday 7th January: I began filming the run through of the camera, and left the computer as it was to film. 

Wednesday 8th January: Had a look into After Effects to see if it was worth working with as well/ instead of Cinema 4D. 

Thursday 9th January: I began uploading my pieces for scene 2 into After Effects and got used to layers. 

Friday 10th January: CAD session and filled in blog! - Also began filming first half of scene 2 on After Effects. 

Project 3: Week 7 - Filming my Animations.

 Filming my Animations. 

After having a bit of trouble with time when trying to film my animation with cinema 4D, I ended up giving After effects a go to see if it would fair any better. And truth be told I wish I had used this in the first place!

I found that using After Effects was just as complicated if you haven't used it before, but once I got the basic grasp of using the layers and merging folders together I absolutely loved using it. I found that my artwork could be seen more clearly and could be fully appreciated without me having to put in artificial lighting in the backgrounds.



I also found that using After Effects was a lot like Photoshop, as I should have sooner since their made by the same company. But using the camera tool was completely different and I think suited me much better, as all I needed to do was alter the image and record that movement as a keyframe on the timeline, instead of having to actually whop out a camera tool. 
I could also go back and edit mistakes easily, take out any random points I had made, or adjust any assets more easily in a 2 dimensional space and a 3 dimensional one. 
This is the set up of my second scene. I found that the colour scheme can be appreciated more in this set up and all of the colours, as well as the assets works really well this way.

Joel Trussel - Carrot and Stick

Carrot and Stick.

This hilarious animation is named Carrot and Stick, simple and straight to the point about what this animation includes, was created by Joel Trussel. The animation starts off with Stick, a literal stick who appears to be sharpening his fingers when his friend Carrot walks in. It is clear straight away from something as simple as their facial expressions that carrot appears to be the care-free and idiotic one of the pair, whereas the Stick is the more uptight, and seems to be constantly angry. The story follows the stick, who wants to stand up for Carrot after he had a chunk taken out of him via the family dog, Rosie. The film is simply comedy genius, showing a vast amount of slapstick humour and although it would appear that Stick intends to save the day, the ending is very anti-climactic and ends up with Stick being bandaged up.
I think this animation relates well to me storyline of my animation, simply because of the unexpected ending, and how un-heroic the Stick turned out to be. The animation techniques are so clever as well, simply because of the fact it is filmed in live action and then using something as simple as Photoshop or After Effects, the need for things such as detail or making sure the characters frames are all the same size are not needed! This reminds me a lot of a mock up version of Jackie Chan which used to be on fox kids, where it was named Jackie Chain ( a plug) who fights a long side his trusted friend Brush Lee (a toilet brush.)

Project 3: Week 7 Plan - 06/01/14 (BACK FROM CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS)

Project 3: Digital Skills Application.

For this project I have been given the task of showcasing my digital skills by making an animated short, along with any other digital work that I feel shows my skills to their full potential. 

Monday, 6th of January:

This week I will be concentrating on finalising everything I need to begin filming my first scene, this will include setting up lighting and a pathway on a spline for my camera. 

Days:	Monday 6th	Tuesday  7th	Wednesday 8th	Thursday 9th	Friday  10th	Saturday 11th	Sunday  12th
Work to Complete	Prepare for filming in Cinema 4D.	Set up artificial lighting and surrounds in Cinema 4D ready for filming.	Film SCENE 1 in  cinema  4D	Film SCENE 1 in cinema 4D	CAD session  - keep blog up to date.	Documentation.	Reflection

Christmas Holidays - Illustrations!

In my spare time I was able to get down a few ideas I had for some of my own work. 
One of the ideas I put to work was a "Skinned Animal" piece, which I want to make into a series of work that would include a vast amount of different animals.

Here, I have created the drawing of a skinned cow atop of the models head, the eyes are missing, and originally I wanted the model to have the eyes of the animal, (I wanted to do the same with a deer and a wolf) and also took a lot of inspiration from Native American cultures. 

I also went onto using parts of the animal anatomy to create another piece.

The piece I named Octodreads, is aptly named because of the morphing tentacles going into the girls head.

I also went and created a piece that focused more on actually painting my images rather than creating more "airbrushed" looking pieces.

Straight away I found it a lot more challenging, but also more entertaining when it came to coloring. And i also feel as though this would be a step forward in my illustration skills.

Paul Insect; Insect Poison. (2008.)

Another one of Insect’s work that inspires me is his piece which is a part of his 2008 “Poison,” show, “Spider.”
The concept for this piece of art, I feel, is for comedy and shock values, which is rather different to his usual pieces of art. This piece of work was done in King Cross Station, which is guaranteed to attract a lot of attention. There could be some sort of hidden message behind this image, relating to evil and corrupt subjects that surround everyone in society without anyone realizing.

The techniques used in this piece appear to be spray paint and a stencil, and although the image is roughly 2D, the highlights and shadows on the image make it very 3Dimensional. This will make the image look very realistic, adding to the shock factor of the over-all piece. I think the technique would also include the position of the image, and being able to make it fit into its surroundings. For example if it is placed at an angle or on a curve, the image would look as though it’s alive and interacting with the surrounding area.

I think this piece would influence me in a number of ways; first of all it would inspire me to do artwork outside the range of human anatomy, where I could illustrate animals or insects instead. I would also think to work outside of the medium of paint and pens, as spray paint is something I’ve never thought to try out. Again it would also relate back to my obsession with drawings needing to be pretty, whereas I could create something that is still eye catching but not have to concentrate on it being aesthetically pleasing and perfect.