Getting Technical With Animation

After sketching down some concepts into my sketchbook, I've started laying down the foundations of the final animation piece. I've chosen to do my final animation piece by computer, using my graphics tablet, and so far, so good! Here's the plan so far:

Using Adobe Photoshop, I'm creating the individual backgrounds and characters, all in the black and white, sketchy style. Then these separate picture files will be put into either Adobe Premiere Pro, or Adobe Flash (depending on which works better) where two or more pictures will be layered over each other in each frame, depending on the scene. I'm creating a "motion comic" which focuses more on camera movements rather than full figure movements. For the finishing touch, I'll add a backing track, along with sound effects and even voice acting, thanks to my friend, Ian.

Here's a few of the pictures I am currently working on for the final piece:

No.2: Animation and Motion Design

Now it's time for another fresh start, this time with some animation!

First, we were shown some 30 second long Animes for the Japanese broadcasting organisation, NHK. We also receive our brief and had a quick chat with the tutors. After some brainstorming, I came up with my idea for the title: "I opened the door and..."

The Good Guy Vs. The Bad Guy

My idea for the animation is to create a scene involving a detective and a criminal in a balaclava. The setting is a run-down apartment, and the detective bursts through the door, and a gun fight erupts between the pair. I don't want to ruin too much of the animation, so that's just a very quick summary of it!

I am having a lot of fun drawing out the two characters, and refining their looks before starting to animate the final piece. I was very happy that I was able to use Vinny Rourke, a character I created during my free time last month, as the detective for this animation. This is a big, tough guy, with a signature cigar in between his teeth. Here is a picture I created of Vinny using Adobe Photoshop last month:

I was thinking of creating the animation using computer programs such as Photoshop and After Effects, and my friend, Ian, really wanted to do some voice acting for Vinny for the animation, which is great since voice acting didn't even cross my mind!

Hopefully all goes well with this porject!

Vis Com: Final Thoughts

So Visual Communications has come to an end, and overall I have had a great time in Visual Communications, and I'm very glad I tried it out. It's definitely in the running for my first choice (it always had been!). There are times were things can become a tiny bit stressful, but that's the same for everything really. You just need to try your best to keep on top of things. I was fun trying to come up with the best concepts possible for our given word, and executing the final ideas was what I enjoyed the most.

And so, here are the final two ideas I created for the Illustrative and Typographical Briefs:

(click on pictures for a better view!)

Illustration - Stretched Sleeve Shirt

The final idea I choose for the illustrative brief is the shirt idea, however, instead of making a shirt out of elastic bands, which would be too time consuming since I would run into so many complications, I simplified the shirt idea by illustrating an ordinary checked shirt with stretched sleeves. After creating a sketch of the idea, with different ideas for the checked pattern, I went onto Photoshop, and transferred the idea using my graphics tablet. I am very pleased with the final result, which is great, since I can now spend the rest of my time with my typography brief this week!

The shirt will probably be split into two A3 pages, and so, half of the shirt will be on on page, and i will cut out the rest of the shirt from the other page and stick it to the bottom of the first page, as if the sleeves are streching pass the borders of the page, or I might just cut out the whole shirt from the grey background.

(click on the pictures for a better view!)

 

                  

Illustration - Final Idea No. 2

My second idea for the brief is an "elastic shirt". This shirt will be made out off elastic bands of all different colours, and each part of the shirt will be able to stretch out when it is being pulled on. This idea will be tougher to create, but it will definitely be worth it. If the elastic band idea fails on me in the making of the shirt, I was thinking of creating the shirt using Lycra tights, or surgical gloves. Our group crit tomorrow morning will help me make the decision on which material will be the most suitable.

Hopefully the group crit will go well for everyone tomorrow morning, along with the results from our work done in the first semester! I can't wait to get start on making my final illustration piece.

Illustration - Concepts and Final Idea No.1

As we progressed further into the illustrative brief, we began working with concepts sheets. Concept sheets contain more experimental ideas which are much less literal. In order to progress successfully with our ideas, we needed to apply the SCAMPER rule for creative thinking:

• Substitute - Replace or change the parts, shape, colour etc.
• Combine - Merge the idea with a different idea
• Adapt - What else is it like?
• Modify / Magnify - Making it larger, smaller, exagerrated etc.
• Purpose - What else can it be used for?
• Eliminate - Subtratc certain elements, breaking it down into it's simplest form.
• Reverse / Rearrange - Changing the arrangement, turning it upside down, on it's side etc.

With this rule in mind, I combined things such as chewing gum and metal, and stretched out solid objects such as a chair. After talking with the tutors, Patricia and Mary, I began working on some of my final ideas.

One of my final ideas is the exaggerated tongue and lips. This piece, if chosen as the final idea to create the illustration, will be in a 3-D format, with the lips made out of cardpaper, or paper mache. The lips will be stuck onto the front of an enclosed box, which will stick onto a flat wall. Inside this box will be a cylinder on a holder (think of a toilet roll in it's holder on the wall!) and wrapped around the cylinder will be a stretchy material (I used a pink sock for the test piece) which can unravel as the viewer grabs the end of the sock and pulls.

 

Semester 2 - No.1: Visual Communications

I'm back after the assessments, and ready to get cracking on my first discipline, Visual Communications.

Today, we were given a brief on illustrations. We have to create illustrations, either 2-D or 3-D, which illustrate a given word. We each picked an active word at random, and the word I had chosen is "Stretch". With that word, I first needed to create a brainstorm that is individual and unique, and once that brainstorm is complete and stuck up on my studio wall, I then had to create coloured thumbnail images of the words written down in the brainstorm.

It was really fun to start fresh with a completely new topic, and drawing the thumbnails was quite a nice change from the sort of stuff I normally do. Now we need to experiment with different materials. So far, I have stretched out tinfoil with my hands, created a relief of my own face by stretching the tin foil in front of me, and I messed around with some other materials, such as bubble wrap, Lycra tights, balloons, plastic bags, string, and even chewing gum. I would love to apply some of my skills with Photoshop into this illustrative project, perhaps involving chewing gum, since it's quite different and quirky.

Here are some pictures of experiements I've done (More experiments coming up in the next update!):