603 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 21/12/20)

Alisha asked me to make some changes to the Gantt chart, so I spent the beginning of this week extending the amount of time for pre-production, so that everyone has longer to complete their tasks, especially over the week of Christmas. I also changed the deadlines for the background artists, as their jobs should spread over production too. Alongside that, I made a shared folder on Drive so that everyone could easily access each others' work.

Link to Updated Gantt Chart (Alisha)

I got to work designing Pandora, the antagonist, for Khoa's project. I tried to make the character look beautiful and angelic to demonstrate their power, whilst also making them appear approachable as the protagonist is unaware of their true intentions at the start.

I also continued working on Rhys' project. There are three characters who will be speaking in this animation, two of which will be designed by Rhys, and the third is a bounty hunter who I've offered to design, and provide the voice for. I've never done voice acting before, however it's always something I've wanted to try. While designing the character, I tried to illustrate someone who I felt comfortable voicing. Subtleties such as the fangs and lizard's tongue I've included as I have a slight lisp, so I felt this would be fitting. I also made the character androgynous, as I feel my voice is quite deep for a girl.

I had another call with Rhys this week where we discussed the script. He shared what he had so far, and the two of us worked together to complete the story. We bounced ideas and lines off of one another, as well as suggesting different camera angles and techniques for each scene, so we could really visualise the animation. I also finished the background character designs, as Rhys wants the Saloon to be very busy, so we need plenty of characters for that.

603 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 14/12/20)

At the start of this week, I made a Gantt chart for Alisha's project. I ran into a few problems while doing this however, as I was using Google Sheets, and as I was about to finish, Drive crashed, as Google experienced a global outage. Eventually, I was able to send this to my team.

Link to Pre-Production Chart (Alisha)

I had a meeting with Stacey and the rest of the team this week. We discussed character concepts and when they needed to be finished by. Stacey is planning on sending a collection of our work to the client, so we needed to prioritise finishing these concepts by Friday. I made a shared Drive folder for the team, so that we could all see each other's progress.

Stacey was inspired by shows such as, 'Charlie and Lola' and 'Chowder', so I also made a version with textured hair, as this was something we had discussed.

I also got to work on some character designs for Rhys' project. I tried to draw in the style Rhys was after, while still exploring more dynamic and unique concepts. We also had a video call this week, in which we discussed ideas for the opening title credits, and the general story.

603 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 07/12/20)

I took this week off to focus on my 601 hand-in. I will continue to work towards this module next week.

603 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 30/11/20)

At the start of the week, I made a Gantt chart for the pre-production stages of Khoa's project. Out of all of the projects I'm producing, this is the most ambitious as it is the longest animation, and is also made up of the most art styles, for the different components within the project. 

Link to Pre-Production Chart (Khoa)

This week, I attended the Animation/Music mixer, and got in touch with a few participants about working on the projects I'm producing. Currently, one student has agreed to provide sound FX and Foley sounds for Rhys' western project, and Khoa's video game project. I've also been messaging a musician about working on Alisha's animation. I will continue to email different musicians for different projects over the next few weeks.

Other than this, I'm focusing on COP3 this week, as the deadline is next Thursday.

601 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 30/11/20)

Link to Weekly Update (30/11)

I spent the first half of this week refining my essay, as I had another feedback session in the middle of the week.

Link to Second Essay Draft

After the session, I continued to add to, and refine my essay until I was happy with it. The final draft can be found here. I will submit my work next week.

COP3 Visual Journal and Practical Outcomes

I started this journey by visually researching the history of LGBTQ+ characters in children's animation.

Link to Visual Journal Video

This helped aid my research, as well as provide the grounds for me to produce my animated outcomes. At the start of this journey, I only aimed to create two character designs, based off of the findings from my visual journal. However, considering LGBTQ+ characters do not all fit into the same box, I could no longer justify this outcome. So, I after completing my turn-arounds, I decided to focus on character animation.

As seen in shows such as 'She-Ra and the Princesses of Power' and 'Adventure Time', I felt the weight of the representation came down to the interactions between two characters, rather than their overall designs. So, I decided to animate a looping animation of the two characters interacting in a scene. Admittedly, the scene I chose from my original script wasn't the best choice, as their interaction in this scene isn't very intimate. If I had the time to do it again, I would choose a more profound interaction so that I could really explore their character and motivations better.

Due to this outcome feeling a little underwhelming, I spent the rest of my time creating a character bible for both characters. At each stage in their journeys, I wrote up a little synopsis of how they feel towards one another, and drew a little illustration of the two together. 

COP3 Dissertation

Link to Dissertation

601 Weekly Update (Week Commencing: 23/11/20)

Link to Weekly Update (23/11)

This week I've felt very stressed. I'm worried about the travel window for students and how it falls directly in front of the hand-in date. In the past, I would spend the week leading up to the deadline tying up any loose ends and making sure the submission runs smoothly. However this year, I haven't got that luxury, as I need to take time out to travel, isolate and get tested!

But hey, let's consider the positives from this week! I've been working on my character bios. Each stage in their lives, which mirrors those in the script, has a little illustration to accompany the list of bullet points summarising each character's development at that specific stage in their journey.

Link to Character Bios

What Went Well?

- I had no plans of making this at the start of this module, so the fact I found the time to also complete this task means I'm becoming more proficient. 

Where To Improve?

- I'm worried some of the designs look a bit rubbish. I tried to age the characters up and down and while this worked in some cases, others look a bit underdeveloped.

Halfway into this week I received some feedback on the first draft of my essay. So, I spent the second half of this week refining my essay based on the notes I got. I also tried to write up my conclusion. Next week, I will write up the chapter on my personal practice.