Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 21/10/19)

At the beginning of the week, I began looking into potential musicians that could provide a score for our animation, as by this point, the animatic had been made so I roughly knew the length of the piece. I ended up talking to a student called Luke Bryan who seemed interested in our project. He sent over his showreel and I sent our animatic. We discussed inspiration and the timescale, and he has started to work on the main crow's theme.

I also continued to work into my crow turn-around by adding colour and testing this colour against our colour palette, using the concept art for the old background.

I struggled with the 3/4 perspective as I wasn't sure exactly how short or rounded his beak would be, nor could I picture exactly how his tail and wings would sit. So by the middle of the week, I worked on the 3/4 pose specifically until I was happy with the proportions. I also sent each turn around to my group chat so they could give me any advice or tips on how to make it more consistent.

Once I fixed the beak and wings, I added the colour and sent this to my team again for any last adjustments.

Nearing the end of the week, I shaded the crow and tested these tones on the original concept art as by this stage, the latest background art wasn't finished yet. Once I have a copy of the new concept art, I will add my characters to that just to double check that the characters and background blends seamlessly together and doesn't look too out of place.

Throughout the week I also worked on a dynamic pose sheet. By this point, the director had sent an updated animatic and I noticed that the beast's eyes at the end are yellow. I included this detail on the sheet and asked if the team preferred the yellow eyes or normal eyes. They agreed that the yellow eyes looked more haunting and creepy so we decided to keep them.

So I went back to the wolf turn around and changed the eyes here too.

Next week we will begin to look at building a replica set so that the 2D animators can start animating as soon as possible and don't need to rely on the 3D set builders. This step was only considered this week so it doesn't have a place on the original Gantt sheet. So I will also look at updating the Gantt sheet next week.

COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 21/10/19)

This week we were set two study tasks that crossed over. So, at the start of the week I focused on producing a poster that would help me triangulate my text and chosen images.

Later on in the week, I added colour to my animism animation and then in order for it to loop, I added more frames so that the character starts and ends off screen. It was important that I made the pupils in the mouse holes start and end in the same place.



Link to Looping Animation

Next week I will look into adding sounds such as: a cat purring, a cartoon blink noise and footsteps.

Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 14/10/19)

At the beginning of the week I focused on colouring in my character's turn around sheets, using the background artist's concept art as an indicator of what the colour scheme will be like.

I felt the blue tones from the moon and the skin tones from the man complimented each other really well however, this was based on the colours I saw on my laptop screen. When I transferred the turn arounds to the Macs in university, the tones had a yellower hue.

I did the same technique with the beast character however I was nervous that the fur was too dark. I took my character sheets to my team and was told that as the mood is supposed to be dark and eerie, darker shades would work better. I was also assured the wolf wouldn't blend into the background too much, as the moon would be the main background focus in any shots the beast was in.

I shaded the human character and then got to work with colour correcting the piece so the skin tones looked more like what I had in mind.

On Wednesday in class, we were given feedback from our lecturer on the work we had done so far. We were also instructed to make a Gantt chart so I got to work making one. However, once we had received our feedback, many of our original ideas and jobs had been changed so I made another.

We were advised to change the way we went about introducing a stop-motion element to the final outcome so, rather than separating the crow's world and the world the crow sees, we are now planning on making a mixed media animation where the background will be 3D while the characters remain 2D. Because of this, I now have the extra job of drawing a turn-around of the crow character as this was originally going to be a 3D puppet.

We were also criticised for the background, as we were informed the woods didn't seem chaotic enough as the trees looked too symmetrical. So, we were advised to minimise the amount of trees present, and even challenged to reduce the background to just one tree. I questioned this decision as one tree doesn't make up a forest however, as the background is now going to be 3D, fewer trees would be easier to make considering the timescale we are working on, and the team's experience with stop motion. So, Joseph began sketching some rough ideas for a new background with only one tree.

After this lesson, I colour corrected the human turn-around. I still used the concept background art for my turn-around however as I wanted a rough idea of the colour palette even though we will no longer be using it.

I also shaded the beast and began the crow turn-around.

In Friday's lesson, we were given a seminar on cinematography. Then in our Maya session, we looked at render layers and compositing. We needed to add shadows, reflections and colour to a scene of a block jumping around a lamp.

I found this session incredibly useful as these were skills I hadn't practiced before.



Link to Maya Video

At the weekend, I continued to work on my turn-around sheets. I based the crow's design on Kate's concept art for her 3D puppet while still trying to keep the characters consistent throughout. Once I have completed this turn-around, I will colour and shade the crow, and then move onto the dynamic pose sheet.

COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 14/10/19)

At the beginning of the week, we were set our next two study tasks. The first, being to write up the first draft of our essay question. The second, was to begin researching topics related to the question by finding a text and analysing it.

We also had a lecture on Sonorous Soundscapes. This was important as by listening closer to sounds we may miss in our day to day lives, we could get a sense of what we needed to add to our own animation clips to make them seem more natural and realistic. We were also advised to listen out for sounds that could be used for other actions as it is important to source our own sounds.

From here, I continued to work on my animation. I decided before I added sound, I would add colour to my cat. Then, I will go on to find sound effects and/or music to add to my looping animation.



Link to Walk Cycle

I also started writing my essay.

Study Task 1 - Initial Ideas

This study task required me to make a mind-map of my chosen research topic and slowly expand my ideas out to help aid me when thinking of a question.

I started by writing down words and phrases that I thought I could expand upon and explore, and that also interested me. The poster below is my first draft which I will bring to my next lesson so I can discuss my initial ideas and potentially get inspiration from my peers.

I knew I wanted to focus on women and how they are represented in the media. I began this task by borrowing some books from the library. I am planning on looking at articles online that could also be of use. As this question may involve the history of women in animation, I am also planning on watching both older and more modern films to get a better understanding for myself.

In the following lesson we shared our diagrams in small groups and discussed different paths we could possibly take as the project progresses. Based on this feedback, I expanded my poster to the one below. I found this lesson very helpful.

This task made me consider alternate arguments and gave me a more solid idea of what I wanted to focus on in particular. From here, I will begin to sort my mind-map into potential paragraphs for my essay.

Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 07/10/19)

At the beginning of the week, I decided to rough out the proportions of the beast character. When I was happy, I sent my progress to my team and when they were happy, I began my turn-around.

As the week progressed, I also worked on my human turn-around. However, I ran into a few problems regarding the profile.

I had a similar issue with the wolf. I found I was relying too heavily on both the front view, and the human turn-around. I was so scared to lose any likeness, that I restricted how expressive my lines were and it shows.

I voiced my concerns with my team who agreed that the faces for both profiles were too flat and that something needed to change.

For a while it seemed I was unable to get over this mental block so I decided to take a short break, clear my head, and start over.

I sketched out roughly in red, many corrections to the head and then tidied it up in black. Once myself and my group were happy, I could start to think about colour. At this point I had received some sketches for the background art and a few potential colour schemes we would be using.

I began adding colour to my human turn-around.

I thought the piece above was too contrasting in certain areas so I brightened up the tones in his hair and made his pants darker. I also added bags under his eyes.

I then sent this to my group chat however the settings on my laptop screen and phone screen are very different so on Monday in class, I will look at my turn-around sheet using one of the macs to see if I need to change anything or if my laptop colours are accurate.

Then in Friday's lesson, we were given a lecture on acting and using references, and also a quick Maya recap session.

I started by making the first thing that came to my head which, for some reason, was a gate.

Then as a class, we were instructed on how to make an office chair.

At the weekend, I attacked the wolf turn-around in a similar fashion.

I am worried that the tones once again are too contrasting so, I may need to make the fur lighter and stain the pants a little more. Once I have the finished background art, I can use this to help give me a sense of how dark or light the scene will be and how much I need to alter this.

COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 07/10/19)

In class we were set our first study task which involved making a mind-map of our initial ideas.

We also sat through a seminar on "Sentient Spaces". I built upon my animism animation from last week by adding a background that was living and interacting with the cat.

A note I received several times last year was to keep my backgrounds minimal so they didn't distract the eye from the main focus of the animation. So, I tried to make the background simplistic so that the character is the main focal point. I feel adding eyes that watch the character also helps to draw the audiences' eyes in.



Link to Sentient Spaces Animation

Study Task 1 (Week Commencing: 30/09/19)

For this module, we were put into teams of four at random and each had to create a story based on the picture dice we rolled. After the teams were picked, the four of us sat down to discuss our: strengths, weaknesses and preferred medium. We also made a group chat as communication is key to making a successful outcome.

I chose the intergalactic themed dice and the three images I got were: a robot, an escape pod and a rocket (which I interpreted as a rocket crashing).

I then began to write a short synopsis of the story I had in my head, bearing in mind the limitations we may face in the future such as the timescale. I sketched and refined the antagonist, protagonist, and setting to help visualise the characters and chain of events. I am particularly pleased with my astronaut's design.

We were also informed that regular updates of our progress is expected, so I am planning to write weekly updates as the module goes on.

In Friday's lesson, we each took it in turns to pitch our initial ideas. The class voted for Stacey's story so from here we assigned jobs to each other for our pre-production stage.

I nominated myself for the job of the producer, as well as the 2D character designer. Kate will work on the 3D elements such as the design of the crow and any 3D backgrounds, and Stacey will refine the script and begin the story board. At first, we were considering combining the different mediums however as this story is told from the crow's perspective, I suggested that as the crow watches the chain of events, we could incorporate the 2D style by using this to let the audience know the story is being seen through the crow's own eyes at that point in the animation. Which meant Joseph had the job of designing the 2D landscape boards.



Link to Mood Board

To get a better understanding of the character, I made a quick mood board. I asked the director whether the style should be more realistic and horror-esque or more cartoon-like and was told the latter, so I looked to other animated shows that featured werewolves and films from the eighties as these transformations are usually more comical to watch compared to films being produced today.

I spent the weekend sketching up rough character concept boards. A note I received from my team was that the designs above looked too detailed which would be difficult to animate so I tried to simplify them.

The characters above are the simplified versions. I will continue to refine these over next week.

COP2 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 30/09/19)

This lesson introduced us to Animism, which is the belief that objects and creatures all have a spirit/ essence. We then watched a series of videos and debated whether or not the animators were able to capture this essence through the appeal of their characters.

The study task this week was to produce a rough line test of an object or animal being brought to life.
I animated a walk cycle using my cat, Conan, as the model, and decided to give him a more anthropomorphic walk, inspired by the latter films we watched in class.

I sketched a very rough walk cycle first, consisting of eight different frames.



Link to Rough Animation

I then refined this animation by making the lines more crisp and confident.



Link to Refined Animation

Finally, I added a tail to my animation, once more looking at references to try and make sure the follow-through looked right.



Link to Final Animation

We were also briefed about the main body of this module.

The first topic that came to mind was women in animation. I decided to focus on the difference between female characters portrayed in the media fifty years ago compared to how they are portrayed now. I took two books out of the library: "Women, Feminism and Media" by Sue Thornham and "Woman and the Media" by Theresa Carilli and Jane Campbell.

LEVEL 5 ANIMATION

From this point on I will be blogging about my second year at Leeds Art University.