Reflective Report on Year 2.

During my first project of the year, I was set the task of creating a character of my own imagination who would star in my animation later on in the year. This wasn’t totally new to me as I’ve had experience at creating characters before, but it was nice know I’d be drawing something that wasn’t human for a change. I started out this project with simple sketches of my initial ideas, which was that of a small rodent hero, largely based off the likes of Meeko from Pocahontas and Scrat from Ice Age. These sketches slowly developed into fully fledged digital drawings and ended up being rather impressive looking character boards, showing his initial stance, his range of emotions and dynamic poses in all stages of illustrative progression. There were a number of strengths and weaknesses in this project that I took into account upon reflection. One of my strengths was obviously the digital drawing and colouring of my character boards, as my newly developed digital drawing skills over the summer were going to be put to the test in creating something to look rather professional and well-constructed. However, one of my weaknesses from this project was definitely the layout and putting together of my final character boards: as graphic design and logos aren’t the kind of subject I’m interested in, creating something where strict measurements and specific spaces was rather challenging to me. Although, with some help from a class tutorial with Paul, I was able to get past this issue and create a rather good-looking trio of character boards which all appeared in a clear and concise set. One aspect which I think I will take away from this project is definitely what I learned about the designing side of this project, such as the styling and layout of these character boards and our sessions with Paul, mostly because I felt as though that’s what I learned the most and I can now apply that skill to my work in the future.

For my second project, I was set the task of creating a number of walk cycles and loops, using a variety of alternative techniques. I was rather excited by this project, as walk cycles are always something I had considered to be PART of a project and not one on its own which was a nice change. It gave me a real chance to see, with the time available, just how many different ways and kinds of walk cycles I could make on my own. I think it's safe to say that in this project I did get slightly carried away with just making as many walk cycles as I could but in the same way, as I ended up getting very interested in making different characters walk and showing how certain characteristics and certain parts of their body would affect how they would move. I wouldn’t say I use a wide variety of techniques to make up these walk cycles, instead I think I just made a lot of different walk cycles, as in different variations of characters in different states of life and death, which I think is still something I can take from this project and be proud of. Again there were a number of strengths and weaknesses in my work throughout this project. One of my main strengths in this project in particular were my drawing skills: I think this time last year, the thought of drawing a complete 24 walk frame in a short period of time would have terrified me, as my skills in sketching un-human bodies, and my digital skills and abilities weren’t that high at all. However, this year I definitely pulled through with being able to work faster and produced more in depth and detailed pieces than I first thought I could, which is bonus. One of my weaknesses during this project was probably my lack of using other techniques to actually produce different mediums of work, for example I could have done a traditional set of illustrations and rotoscope them together, and I think this a point I will definitely take onto other projects I do, mainly because it will create a more diverse set of scenes and add a bit more character to the animations that I produce in the future.

My third project of the year included me sketching, developing, producing and editing a short animation. I began by creating my storyboard, as this would give me most direction through the scenes of my animation instead of me having to write things down. I created a good-looking storyboard which was clear, simple and had a set colour scheme through it. This storyboard definitely helped me as I began to create all of the assets for my animation as well. I began pretty slow, taking my time in making sure all my assets were up to scratch and full of detail, as I've not made a full 2D animation before! This eventually caught up with me and I was left rushing slightly towards the end, that and I also came into contact with MAC issues, where the computers were just too slow to produce more than 3 seconds of animation. I also had great fun using Adobe AfterEffects, which I think, will be my go to program for creating animations. It resembles Photoshop in many of its aspects and I think this is what drew me to it so well. Taking all that into consideration, I think there are a fair few new strengths and weaknesses that have come to light. One of the main strengths of my work during this project was the artwork, I think I was able to create some really strong artwork which worked well during scenes and all came together visually, exactly how I thought it would. Although I think the artwork is also one of the reasons for my weaknesses as well, as taking so much time to produce the artwork I think over-rode the limit I had set up for myself. This resulted in me not being able to edit together more scenes in time which, if I’m honest, had me kicking myself when the deadline came in. I think I will definitely take on the weakness and learn from it from now on though, as I never want to have myself in such a stressful situation like that ever again! And I will definitely learn to manage my time better and work at a faster pace and workflow from now on.

My fourth project of the year I was given the task of creating 3 5-second long idents to be used in the advert for the company, Digital Cinema Media. I started this project at an utter loss for what to do if I’m honest: as the subject was to create abstract pieces of digital 3D work to be composited onto live footage. I ended up choosing two rather dark feelings at the start of this project mainly because of the abstract shapes I had created during tutorials and they seemed to fit the bill rather well. I then went on to choose an emotion to counter balance the dark ones which was euphoria. For this I did most of my compositing, and I did this by creating small little particles, which could be a cross between bees and jellyfish… which zoomed and glowed across the screen. I think this project shows where I had my strengths and weaknesses quite well if I’m honest. For my strengths, I think they showed through pretty well when it came to compositing abstract shapes onto videos and photographs. I took in depth notes when we were being taught on compositing and it really paid off when it came down to doing that side of this project for sure. I also had a really big experimental phase where I made a variety of little shapes, with strange textures, colour and shapes which I think has made my confidence grow more when using cinema 4D for 3D work. I don’t think I had many weak points in the project, but one of the weakness in my work would probably be the trouble (or lack of inspiration) I had when trying to get my head round creating abstract pieces of 3D art to composite onto video. I did eventually get into many ideas and try out a few different things, but at the beginning I was just not able to think of anything that could be put together for this project. I did over-come this when the class had tutorials with David and Paul, who showed us it was a lot easier than we all thought. I think I would take the knowledge I gained about creating abstract pieces with me into future projects the most, as it was a subject completely new to me and ended up also being the most interesting as well!

For my fifth project this year, I was set the task of doing a live brief, along with any other “out of college” work, over the Easter holidays. I found this to be one of my favourite projects in the whole year, mainly because of the freedom and lack of structure to it. I began by doing some personal work for a fellow college student’s album cover for his band, which required me to use a big mixture of traditional and digital work respectively which I really enjoyed, as it wasn’t close to anything I had done this year in terms of content. I also went ahead and entered my work for the weekly competition called “Illustration Friday,” which has a specific subject every week, and this gave me a chance to be able to create a piece of artwork in the shortest deadline I’ve had to complete yet! I really liked this challenge as it greatly improved my style of work by simply sitting back and painting rather than stressing over what grade I would get. I then had a go at entering my work in the competition called “The Young Illustrators Award 2014.” This was an open competition to designers of all trades from illustrators to pattern makers to animators. I was equally as excited about this project as I was the others, simply because of my increased skills in digital art and my desperate need to show it off. I was really enthusiastic about this part of the project and I think that’s why it came out so positively, as I was more relaxed and ended up showcasing skills that I didn’t even know I had when it came to painting the figures horns and face. The rest of the aspects of this project all had a similar effect on me, and the more I did, the more confident I was as both an artist and a person, which lead to me speaking to a number of design studios online (through twitter) and making me have so much more confidence over all. Like a much needed morale booster. There were a number of strengths and weaknesses throughout this project that I think need addressing, and one of the strengths I had was my skills overall as a digital artist. Over the past year I have definitely become a much more confident artist, and it’s almost surreal seeing a lot of the things I wanted to happen this year, happen. And I know that from hard work and pushing myself to try things I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near had I not started this course, is something I know I NEED to take with me in the future if I hope to get any further than I am now. One of my weaknesses I discovered during this project was definitely finding time to spread over different pieces of work, and not trying to commit to one thing at a time. This will help me not only get jobs and tasks done quicker, but also help me when it comes to being distracted of losing motivation in pieces of work, which is one of my many noted weaknesses in my SWOT analysis.

To generalise this year in a small summary, I think it’s safe to say it’s been just immense in the types of work I’ve encountered, as well as the work I’ve produced. I can’t even begin to explain how astonished I am of what I’ve achieved in the past two years, combined with the knowledge I’ve gained and people I’ve met. My skills have developed to a level I used to fantasise about having during A Level, and my workflow was more than quadrupled in the past two years and I’ve been spouting out pieces of work I never knew I could even think of producing. Not only have both my workflow and skills improved since the start of the year, my attitude as a whole has also changed for the better; I’m much more open to the hundreds of styles of art, as well as having more of an opinion on culture, both popular and independent, which I think is a vital component when going into an industry such as Animation and Illustration.

Anxiety Awareness Week 2014

Brief:

Since Anxiety is something that effects almost every aspect of my life, I decided that since Anxiety awareness week was coming up soon, I would do something to recognise this, as well as try to possibly educate, through a visual means, what life is like when suffering from this. I knew this would be an iffy subject to go over, as I never like fully discussing what happens when I experience anxiety, but obviously drawing an illustration is heaps better than sitting down and trying to explain to someone what it’s like.

Evaluation:

 I knew straight away that I wanted this to be a pure black and white, pure and simple, without anything to distract the viewer from the main parts of this image. I also chose to complete this illustration in pencil, as I think keeping things simple and pure it the best way to get a message across. I started off with a really basic sketch, and wasn’t sure if I was going to actually out any features on the face of my character, simply because there isn’t a defining face for who anxiety and depression can happen to. But I did end up choosing to put a face, which I suppose looks a little bit like my own (but not intentionally) just to make it a little more personal. I wasn’t quite sure on how to depict anxiety as an actual subject for about three days, as trying to describe it to someone is difficult enough, but the defining word that stood out whenever I’ve tried to describe it is “gripping” and “something that can just cling to you for hours,” and this gave me the idea for a talon, as its scary, sharp and strong enough to project the power that anxiety can have over someone.

There are plenty strengths and weaknesses in this piece for me to pick out. A strength that is most obvious to me is my line work, and I really enjoy using line density to add character and an overall theme to my work. I have a pretty steady hand and am able to create the long flowing streaks in her hair and eyelashes, but am also able to make the bold and angled lines on the talons gripping her hair. Although one of my weaknesses is my trademark “female face” that I use in literally all of my work, and I WOULD like to sometime soon just concentrate on drawing males more, and depict different looking people rather than my “default face.”

I think the skills I have shown in this piece are skills I would really like to take on with me through to later work, and I think I could achieve this by going back to doing more traditional sketch work before putting my work on digitally, as now I tend to just do my work straight away in a digital format. I think this was inspired slightly through researching Dave Correia's work online, as I found that his way of showing so much detail an using a traditional workflow at that. 

Making a Society6 Page.

In the last three months I've had more and more requests about people buying my artwork, and although this is insanely flattering, it's something I also worry about quite a lot, purely because I can't/don't leave my house very much and wouldn't want to set commitments I'm afraid I couldn't keep. 

However, my classmates, Kym and Danielle showed me THIS beauty, where the company take off a percentage of what I would earn, in order for them to distribute, mail out and create the prints/accessories I upload! As I'm not too bothered about making a lot of money from this, it's just nice to know it's something that's taken care of and I don't have to panic over.

My Society6.

Live Project: Week 1 Plan - 24/03/14

Self-Initiated Study Plan Week 1 "7th Wave & Bang On Catering" Logos.

For my self-initiated study, I have chosen to create a number of varied illustration and design pieces to add to my portfolio. These images will show the development in not only my personal skills but show what I have earned when it comes to illustration and digital painting over the past two years. I will do these images on a weekly to half-weekly basis depending on how fast I work, and document my timing and initial outcome by creating thorough timetables and simple evaluations/explanations of my work as I complete them.

Monday, 24^th of March:

This week I will be creating two logos for a local catering and coffee business. My aim is to provide the company with logos based on the information they have given me about the company, and my own research into subjects behind the naming and colours related to this subject. I also plan on having multiple meetings with the clients in order to keep them updated with my progress and ensuring that they are happy with what I'm doing.

Days:	Monday 24th	Tuesday 25th	Wednesday 26th	Thursday 27th	Friday 28th	Saturday 29th	Sunday 30th
Work to Complete	Research into “7th Wave” title and the meaning behind it. As well as corresponding fonts attached to this subject.	Draw up 3 initial ideas for the 7th Wave title, and email client accordingly.	Upon client’s reflection I will complete my finished piece, based on any changes the clients want to make.	Search into possible themes for clients “Bang On Catering” logo – into comic book and Batman theme.	Create three ideas for the Catering title and email client accordingly.	Upon client’s reflections on the ideas, complete final pieces based on any changes made.	Final meet up with client to discuss final image and payment.

Skillset and Job Roles/ Individual Learning Plan.

There are a number of jobs, in the animation industry, that I am interested in once I leave college: 

A Digital Painter:

http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_4106_1.asp

Skills Needed: 

"Digital Painters need a good eye for both detail and colour. They must be methodical and conscientious about follow up, have good computer skills and be able to adapt quickly to new programmes. More senior artists need to understand the Animation process and should be able to use the relevant software, but new entrants can expect to be trained on the job. They must be able to take direction and to work as part of a team."

• As it states in the quote above, Digital Painters must have a keen eye for both colour and detail. - I feel as though this is something I am always working towards and improve on every time I create a piece of work, as the situation I am currently in is that every new piece of artwork I create is my favourite, and when I try and replicate that in my next piece, it ends up being improved upon even more. And that is something I think is vital as a Digital Painter. 
• It also states in the quote that Digital Painters need to have decent computer skills and be able to adapt quickly to new programmes. At first i felt as though this was something I most definitely needed to improve on, as I was always reluctant to try software I hadn't used before. However, now that I have been weaned into a number of different programmes such as After Effects, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and Cinema 4D, I feel as though I can quickly move between programmes and get a general feel for them quickly. 
• Finally, the quote also states that Digital Painters must be able to work as a part of a team. When I first started the year I know for a fact I was rather reluctant to engage with people I didn't know, as the childish thoughts of "What if they don't like me?" would spring about. But now I do feel much more confident as an individual and as part of a group and I feel as though I can take charge or show direction when necessary. 

Concept Artist (2D in Games Design.)

http://www.skillset.org/games/careers/profiles/article_4733_1.asp

Skills Needed: 

"Usually using traditional materials (eg pen and paper) rather than computer software, the Concept Artist sketches ideas for the game worlds, characters, objects, vehicles, furniture, clothing and other content. They also suggest level designs, colour schemes, and the mood and feel of the game. They are usually very good at perspective drawing and architecture. Although not involved in creating the actual game art, their concept will determine the look of many aspects of the game."

• One of the key aspects of Concept Art is that artists would be using pen and paper rather than a computer. I feel as though this is something I can definitely work towards, mainly because as my digital skills have developed, my traditional drawing skills have also improved, especially when it comes to facial expressions and features of the face and anatomy. However, I do lack some confidence when drawing in a traditional format, mainly because of the lack of accessibility when it comes to mistakes (in other words, I'm lazy about cleaning stuff up.)
• Another point that the quote makes is that Artists would need to be able to draw objects, either everyday or something unique, and that is something I need to work on a lot I think, starting with scenes such as cityscapes and alleyways!
• It is also stated that Concept Artists must also suggest level designs colour schemes, and the mood and feel of the game. This is something I really want to work on not only with my personal work, but to have under my belt when applying for jobs too. And recently I have been taking a lot of care into my colour schemes, not only constraining them to a certain degree, but using colours that I wouldn't normally that also work together. 

My Individual Learning Plan.

Here, I am addressing some of my weaknesses and  how I plan on over-coming them using simple and effective methods:

• Time Management - As I may have made clear throughout this blog, I get distracted by absolutely ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. I consider this a very serious problem when it comes to my work and it's something I've been trying to knuckle down on since the start of the year, and within the past few months I've found a solution. What I've been doing is cutting myself from any from of television, DVDS, videos, and online distractions (Facebook/Tunmblr/Twitter.) And I have done this by finding a website that completely blocks me from accessing specific websites for a certain period of time, no matter how hard I try or what proxys I use. It's been literally fantastic! I've found that I quickly get over the urge to pop up Facebook and forget the internet even exists for a while, and even when the amount of time I'm blocked runs out, I'm still in the mind frame of doing work and just continue on! I also listen to the radio a lot, so as to keep my mind occupied with someone talking, but not enough for me to reply or try and look something up. 
• Confidence in my own work - It's no secret that I get anxious to the point of no return when I'm urged to talk about/present/contact people about my work, and it got to the point where I was convincing myself I wasn't going to be able to get a job once I leave college. So to conquer this fear I decided to take at least a little step forward and begin to talk online  about my work. The reason for this is that being on the internet is a whole world away from real life, and if I do something to embarrass myself or I don't get a reply or I receive some sort of message I don't want to is all helped by one word - "DELETE." I've started a "F- this" kind of attitude where I might as well try something and if it doesn't work I haven't technically lost anything, I just haven't gained either, and that's good enough for me. 
• Loss of interest in work - There have been a number of times where I have completely lost any motivation towards my work and it's left me feeling awful, run down, and wanting to discontinue my education. Although I know I'll never be able to bring myself to quit, it's left me feeling awful and down. So. in a way to battle this, I will be making myself try something completely new every time I create a piece of work from now on. I have started to do this with new pieces of work and because all of these pieces are things I want to get right, learn from, and display and show people, I have ended up being so much more interested in my projects and love the final outcomes of my work. And when it comes to personal pieces, I'm hoping this process will help me improve my workflow and over all style every time I'm painting and drawing! 

Opportunities I am going to pursue.

• The Northumberland National Park - Even though I was in the middle of a project, I went ahead and designed a small character for the competition which took place back in December. I feel as though that small live project was the starting point in my new work flow, as I'd been looking at a number of Artists in the Juxtapose magazine articles online before hand. I also found that looking through other artists work does not make me jealous at all, it literally spurs me on to create something as good as what I've seen and is a great motivation. 

• The Young Illustrator's Award 2014 - I plan on taking part in this competition as an Illustrator and will document all of my workflow, which hopefully depicts my new style well and gives and insight to my thoughts throughout the project. 

• Illustration Friday - This weekly competition will definitely enhance my timing issues, as the projects are only a week long, and finding inspiration, obtaining materials, drawing and painting in just a week will actually get me setting my priorities right and have me planning around a few different things, which can only help me at this point. 

• Anxiety Awareness Week - Although this isn't really a competition, anxiety is something that controls every single aspect of my life down to the very last minute of every day. And I think it will be rather therapeutic to do something art related for that week. I do have plenty time ahead of me as it isn't until May, but noting it now for the future will help me plan. 

SWOT Analysis for 2014.

Strengths:

Knowledge of Digital and Traditional methods – Can use both traditional and digital means to create pieces of work, with a basic to well-practiced understanding of software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Paint Tool Sai.

Self-Taught – Didn’t conform to traditional, and inconsistent methods of teaching when at school and took to the Internet and nontraditional artists as a basis, giving me a broader and extensive amount of inspiration.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

Open to Ideas and Alternatives – usually listen well to alternative ideas both when I’m struggling or not. Usually the best advice is given during group work and tutorials, and comes fro a lot of different practices.

Took Risks during Animation Process – I was advised during our Digital Skills Application project to try out a number of different ways to create animations, using a number of programs such as Cinema4D and AfterEffects – which I hadn’t really used before.

Improved Upon my Digital Painting Skills – During my Essay on how digital painting has affected the Art industry, I learned a vast amount on other processes of Artists workflows that have influenced me, in more depth.

Went out of my Comfort Zone when Making characters – In my most recent animation project, I decided to use animals as my cast, and not humans, to get out of my usual comfort zone and “go to” characters.  This gave me many more challenges when it came to animating these characters.

Improved Time Management – Since using personal timetables, I have become much more aware of work I have left to do and am able to complete work much more on time.

Weaknesses:

Time Management – I tend to give myself less time than I actually need, sometimes resulting in my work being to a lesser standard.

Working using Scale and Measurements – Have a tendency to unintentionally lose or alter the scale of my drawings when creating walk cycles, not a concise tracer.

Confidence in my own work – Lack of confidence or satisfaction with a number of my drawings, leaves me rather fed up of them, and they tend to be something that needs to be carried on through a project. And can sometimes lose interest in the project.

Lack of varying characters – I tend to stick to the same kind of characters, the majority of them being human and don’t feel as though creating more inhuman characters is a strength of mine.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

STRESS – I take too much upon myself and don’t allow breaks between the amount of work I do, which tends to leave me in a work induced coma, unable to figure out which load of work to do first.

Can get too attached to my work – Working on digital illustrations and animations for clients other than friends and familiars, has shown that I must not get too attached to my work, and can’t take criticisms of that work too personally either.

 Opportunities:

http://illustrationfriday.com/category/contestsprojects/ - Competition done every Friday, I fell that this competition would benefit me, as it gives me a major time limit to help improve my time management problems.

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/index.php - A more challenging competition where I would have to “conform” to the rules, as it is designing the cover of a book for someone’s book cover.

http://www.loopdeloop.org/ - This would help me get body proportions right and discover ways to make stranger characters move and function.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

http://www.loopdeloop.org/ - This would help me get body proportions right and discover ways to make stranger characters move and function. – Have completed this project and gained the ability to produce an animation which is timed perfectly to music, something I hadn’t been able to do before.

http://www.illustrative.de/award/award/ - The Young Illustrator Award 2014 is something I want to try out, purely because of the amount of subjects (which relate to illustration) such as Visual Art, Pattern Design, Graphic Design, Animation and Comics.

http://www.panmacmillan.com/macmillanprize - The Macmillan Prize 2014, is a competition set up to stimulate new work from young illustrators when it comes to designing book covers. I think that this project would be perfect for me because of the fact that the company are looking for a very specific kind of design, and it would test my illustrative strengths to their full potential.

Threats:

Other Commitments – Making time for both work and commitments outside of work could be challenging due to the extent and amount of work I sometimes get given.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

Panic and Anxiety – Worrying and panicking about certain aspects of my work can make me forget about other parts of work. I have also missed important days of college due to panic attacks

Which have cost me dearly.

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 2: Creating my Walk Cycles/ Final Products/ Evaluation.

In Preparation of creating my walk cycle loops for my final animation, I began by studying and

researching various ways that characters walk, and taking into consideration my characters weight, height and specific body parts which would have to be catered for. I searched through a vast amount of walk cycles and character designs, until I got to this little gem.

It seemed as though this walk cycle was perfect to help base my characters walk, for a number of reasons. The main one relating to the fact that I wanted my character to be rather short and podgy, and this little bird’s body was rather similar to what I had in mind. I also found that as I was drawing up my own characters body, based on this walk cycle, his belly would move from side to side, as if drawing all attention to it, and making it seem even bigger than it was.

I found it a lot easier to simple draw my walk cycle images straight onto my computer, than doing them traditionally first, this saved so much time when it came to putting them all together. I used a stabilising tool on my pen work, which meant the lines would be a lot more smooth and flowing, and not sketchy like they would have come out by hand. I also chose to keep the outline of my character rather dishevelled, by changing the pressure that I applied to the pen. This made the line-work much more dramatic and somehow added a lot more character to the little raccoon, mostly by the lines being thicker at his arms and tummy, which made them seem more defined and thicker.  I didn’t have any specific difficulties when creating this walk cycle, there were minor changes to make with every frame there was to do. I did find, however, that I was able to keep the line definition the same throughout the cycle, and very easily as well, with thanks to the simple shape or my character.  Seeing as I had something as a base for my character’s walk cycle, it didn’t take me much time to complete my first walk cycle, and decided that because it had been so successful and so time efficient, I would use this loop, as an actual piece in my animation.

After I had created my first successful walk cycle, I decided I wanted to give it a go at colouring it;

I began by making a copy of my set of frames, and used the layering system to use colour on my individual frames, without going over the linework and ruining it. I wanted to start off using basic

colours and working my way up to doing complicated and more detailed colouring. However, I found that my characters colours were rather simple, and to try and simplify them anymore would cause them to not match the style of drawing I had done on them.

Here, it shows my first final frame that has been coloured. I used a base colour in grey/brown, then applied a light blue/white for the tail stripes and the fur on his belly and face. I used a textured brush which I edited to make look like fur, which I think worked very well on his body. I also added a dark grey to black colour on his feet, which worked very successfully and made them look a little dirty, which it turn makes him look more like a wild animal, rather than a house pet.

After I had applied all of his fur, and dark rings around his eyes to make him look both tired and more raccoon-like, I went on to create the shadow around his body. To do this, I made a new layer, turned the opacity down to about 19%, and turned the colour down to pure black. Then, with the stabiliser on max, and the pencil tool (which creates a clicked end) I went over the specific parts of his body.

This image shows in more detail how the shadow looks on the character. I think it works really well, when creating a shadow this way because of its opacity. The colours underneath are still very visible, whereas if I’d simply put a black line as the shadow it would have looked a lot less effective in my opinion. It also makes my character look a lot 3-dimensional, which brings him to life.

After I had completed all 14 of my walk frames, I then adjusted all of my images to ensure they were the same height, width and length, as my animation looked a little bit jumpy when put together.

Once I had completed a walk cycle, and applied colour, I thought it best to try and work on one of my more difficult characters. That character being Lola, the fawn friend of Archie’s, and the soon to be killer of Archie as well. I really struggled with putting together an idea of how to make her walk, as I

haven’t ever really drawn deer that much, due to their complicated bodies and stances. So I sought help from gifs of Bambi, which I then broke down and used as bases for my own character! I found this way to be so helpful, and I quickly picked up the specific body parts and areas which would need most defining and emphasis, like I did with my first loop. I didn’t copy the cycle too accurately in this image, as they depict a fully gown deer walking, and I wanted to add the cautiousness and speed of a young fawn.

I found that using the pen tool, again, gave the sleek edge and soft lines that I wanted for this picture, as deer are seen as elegant creatures. I also found it rather challenging to keep an eye on what leg was moving where, and to ensure that I didn’t mess up the walk cycle. I probably could have made it easier for myself by shading or marking one of the front and back legs, to distinguish them from each other.

However, I persevered, and was able to create a full, and working, 20 frame cycle, which shows the deer cautiously walking forward. I added a tiny bit of a head dip to my character, which is JUST noticeable, but I didn’t want to create too much of a fuss with parts of the body other than the legs at the moment. One thing that did bug me about this walk cycle was that the images seemed to get bigger as the frames went on, which is probably down to my poor tracing skills. I managed to correct this by taking each individual frame and used the transform tool to make every single one of them the same size.

This walk cycle, I feel, took a lot more time and concentration than my first loop, simply because of the amount of body parts I had to control.  I feel as though I could easily apply colour to this cycle now, and try and work how the shadows would change as the character moves as well. And I also intend to use this cycle as a base for when I turn my fawn into a zombie like creature, were I can use each frame and edit it to my liking.

Once I had finished my first deer walk cycle, I then went on to using it as a base for the horrific makeover it was about to get;

I started off by drawing a simple line on my canvas, to ensure that all the frames were going to be the same size and I wouldn’t somehow make them all bigger as the frames go on.

I then copied and pasted one frame at a time, adjusting the size so that the character situated itself perfectly on the line. I then “went to town” on erasing parts of the body, and filling them in with different, horrific injuries that I plan on giving to the deer.

I started off with rather simple things, I added bags under her eyes to signify that she had become part of the nocturnal forest, much like her friend the raccoon. I then added a few drops of…whatever was eating her from the inside out, on her mouth and then added bits of the substance dripping from her mouth and swinging in a very mucus-like fashion. Although I’m aware that deer don’t really have eyebrows, or most artists try and blend them into their facial furry features, I altered hers to make her look more angry and demonic than before, and although the eyebrow looks rather placid in this image, it gradually becomes scarier as the frames go on.

I then went on to taking actual chunks out of her body. I knew from the moment I decided that she would “turn,” that I not only wanted to have parts of her body missing, I also wanted her to gain body parts, growths, tumours, boils – those kinds of things. So the gunge that’s eating her from the inside out, finally made an appearance and is shown to be dripping down her neck, were her windpipe and throat would be, I think this looks great, really effective and is actually not nice to look at, rather than making her still look cute with half her body missing, which is a common thing among this genre of animation.

After spending so much time working with her legs, I was a little apprehensive about changing them in any way, but one idea I did have, which kept her leg shape well, was to have a bone sticking out of one of the joints in her front and back legs. I drew a rather crude looking bone sticking out of the joint in her front leg, which looks rather horrible, along with the blood trailing down her leg to add to it. I also made her body lower itself, and go into a little dipping motion when it was time to put pressure on the leg, which I think will make it look a lot more effective and consistent with the frames.

After adding extra bones and effective the movement of my character, I then went on to make the biggest impact of my character;

I decided that to make my character a little bit more 3-dimensional, and I did this by removing almost half a side of my entire character. I wanted to have some ribs and organs showing, as well as making the skin look like it was peeling or dissolving away due to the substance inside of her. Although I want the skin to recede slowly, so I started off with a few cracks and splits in her skin, which I want to develop into larger splits and tears. Showing the ribs was easy enough, as I simple just had three separate spaces which curved down to meet the joint in her front leg.

I then went on to add multiple creases in the edges of her joints and skin. I think this makes the character look a lot more run down, almost as if she was sagging due to the nature of her health. I also added a kind of splat effect print on her hip, I think it kind of lightens the mood on the animation, as I don’t want this animation to be completely horrific! And the creases I think work so well, making her look so much more decrepit and shows just how much she is falling apart, and I also added a graze to the skin on her back leg, just so I could tell the difference between the legs.

The final product of my first frame of this walk cycle looks like this; I am very pleased with the detail I have managed to put into her and how I was able to make her health deteriorate steadily the more she moves. I have adjusted the majority of the frames to ensure that all of them are the same size and have went through her run cycle to make sure that the leg works well also, as I have intended to make it look as though it is limp when she runs. I then applied this to all 20 frames of my original walk cycle.

FINAL OUTCOMES:

Evaluation.

One a whole, I am really pleased with how all of my walk cycles have turned out. I used a digital format to create all of my frames and loops, which I haven’t done before, and experimented with making a gradual change to my character through the loop as well, which required a lot of attention to detail. I think I struggled slightly with keeping my frames all the same size and shape, because I was tracing and tracing and tracing an image constantly, and a result of this problem was the size of the deer's head changing and morphing slightly when in real life it would stick to the same size.
 If I were to do anything different, I would try and trace out all the frames by hand first, to ensure that they were all the same size, and would also have the much smoother and sleeker lines that my hand-done pieces tends to have.