Drawing Update 1#

Ever since beginning the city collaboration in the drawing sessions with Tom, I find myself investing more time and effort into the personal work I’ve been doing home, which began at the end of this summer. They're mainly just quick illustrations of various figures, mainly me and Daphni, whom I originally created the drawings for. Here's a few examples:

As you can see, nothing exceptional just quick illustrations done on lined paper, for my own amusement and interest.

But from here, thanks to the collaboration, the amount of time and detail I've invested into each of these illustrations has increased, and becoming much better. Here are a few examples:

As you can see, the lines are bolder and more obvious, and the addition of colour and the use of lighting. The illustrations are now done graphically, on my laptop with a drawing tablet, which shows much better results than the previous medium of paper and pencil. As you can see the illustrations don’t have much in the way of backgrounds, or anything aside from the characters. So it isn’t relevant to the collaboration yet, but I have been inspired to begin adding various other things into the drawings to fill the page and bring the little world inside the image alive.

Drawing Session 2

This will not be a big update, as we mainly just continued with what we did last session. We continued with the adding of various items until the pages were full, at which point all 6 sheets were stuck to the wall. At this point we needed to agree as a group, in what order the pages would go. We agreed the pages with the largest city hall, should go in the middle, with the similar pages next to it, and then the more industrial city pages be put more on the outskirts, and finally the page with the fields, river and...giant bunny, be out on the end. After stuck in order, we all stood back to admire our work. Ill admit I did get a feeling of from observing it, and we were looking forward to what it would look like at the end of the session. We then went about doing 2 things, filling in the gaps, making the pages connect at the edges to look like one big piece instead of 6 individual pieces, and outlining everything on it with pens. Filling in the gaps turned out to be the interesting, as it challenged us to think of creative and effective ways of making the pages connect, with the drawings already on the pages. Outlining turned out to take much longer than expected, infact it took the rest of the session, but it was definitely worth it. Taking a step back at the end of the day and looking at it we all had a sense of accomplishment, seeing what we had spent the last few weeks doing finally coming into fruition. There is still a lot work to do on it, its starting to look very impressive, infact the whole thing looks like time and effort has gone into planning the placing of each building, car and tree, when in fact it was just random order. I cant wait to see what will happen to it next time we come to it. Toms told us well be taking it to the art room, as it will get messy. I’m hoping we wont do any irreparable damage to it!

The Pitch

Here we are, on the day of the pitch. I had the first time space of the day. I had all my storyboard panels and character designs in hand, and was happy that I was the first pitch of the day, as the clients would be fresh and awake.

I believed I did well on the pitch. The storyboard and my walk-through of it was clear and precise. But found when I described pivotal scenes, expecting faces of approval, I was met with faces of shock and horror, which confused me. After running through the storyboard and an awkward pause, I realised why they looked so shocked and confused. I neglected to mention it was an animation, and they assumed I was a film student in live action. Thankfully after clearing up its going to be an animation, they seemed far more positive and interest about my pitch. At this point I presented them with my character designs. They liked my designs and said it has promise to be an interesting piece both visually and story-wise, with some of the scenes going to be very effective. The time then came for the representative from the Leeds Armouries to give his take on my pitch. He gave very positive feedback. He especially liked the involvement of the Kitchener, which answered the briefs need according to him. But he did state that a new brief, or somewhat of an alteration had been made since we were given the list. He asked if I could show how modern technology would've been used back then if it was available. I didn’t exactly understand what he was asking for, the information he was saying wasn’t entirely clear but I believe I got the basis of it. I did suggest the Kitchener coming out of an LCD screen instead of a poster, which he liked. Fortunately he stated that my original concept was already strong and answered their brief, and there was no desperate need to change it. Overall I’m happy with what I created, and believe my presentation was good. Aside from the fact I forgot to mention it was an animation, and forgot to ask for technical details for the final piece. But I later discovered they did not have an answer on that day for those questions. Now we wait and see if my pitch is green-lit I did overhear them say they only had the budget to finance less than half a dozen films, and considering both animation and film students were pitching, I have no real expectation of being chosen, but seeing as the budget would add extra pressure and limitations in some ways, I wont be upset if not chosen. But we now wait until next week to see the results.

Modern Times

Today we watched Modern Times, and I must admit, I enjoyed it. I've seen Chaplin's earlier work, so expected to enjoy it, but not this much.

Although there is close to no dialogue in the film ,aside from the boss in the factory, its absence goes unnoticed. The music, body language and facial expressions of the actors express the emotion and feel of the scenes the director is trying to show. The music is the biggest help when identifying what mood or atmosphere the scenes is meant to have. For example the scene where they’re in the mall, and Chaplin is skating around the room, it is a happy, and positive moment., and after evading the police and on the street, the scene is one of sadness, and hopelessness. The factory work scene is an another example where the fast music goes with the fast pace of the workers and reflect the sudden industrial boost. 

The film also challenged the industrial and technological advancements of the time, and its negative fallout of those, on the working class men and families. Big companies were investing and bringing in machinery that could go 20 hours a day without stop for rest or food, and besides the initial buying cost, maintenance and electricity, worked for free. Ordinary men taught to do one specific job in a process that involved 100 different components, couldn’t compete, and knowing only how to do do one specific job for their entire life, had no possibility of finding decent paying work elsewhere. A problem that is still faced today, constant and larger advancements in technology, are creating machines that can do the jobs of dozens of men in less time, with lesser costs and larger profit. This film is a warning to the public to be aware of the dangers these seemingly incredible wonders have on all our lives.

Storyboard, Character Designs and Client Meeting.

When I began to create the storyboard, I found I would work from the scenes I had imagined in my head in the first lecture (Kitchener coming out of the poster, and everyone around the main character having Kitchener’s face after). I made a very crude, scribbled storyboard in my notebook, and stood back to see if it made sense. After a few alterations and improvements I moved on to create a more detailed storyboard on A3 for the pitch. Once completed, I practiced what I would say and how I would walk the client through each scene of the storyboard on the day.

Sheet 1 of 2

Sheet 2 of 2

I then moved on to the character designs. I wanted to create 3 for the pitch, the main character, the army recruiter and a woman that’d be on the street judging the main character. After completing the final design for the main character, I thought the upper body looked to square, the shirt looking too crisp brand new, that was too big for the boy. But found this was more actually more effective, as it strengthened the idea this main character is just a young boy too young to fight, wearing a military uniform made for men. Hinting the war is meant to be fought by men, not young frightened boys.

For the recruiter I decided I'd go with a more unnatural body shape – bigger head and upper body, smaller legs, and extremely large jaw- to make the recruiter look big, strong, essentially an actual soldier prepared for war. Which I feel it accomplishes.

I'm happy with the design of the woman aswell. Although I'm aware the fashion worn in the design is historically inaccurate, I didn't change it before the pitch because I wanted to see, if after seeing the colour and style of the design, they felt the more visually pleasing the design was better than the duller colours of an accurate design. But I made sure Id make immediate note of the inaccuracy in the pitch to show the clients it wasn't a mistake, or due to lack of research. I believe the design expresses the impressions I want the viewer to have about the character – a mean, judgemental woman.

I found that the session with the clients was beneficial. I heard from them what they wanted in  it was still great to here from the clients mouth what they wanted. Although the Armouries mainly focused on the other 2 briefs they had, the ones involving animations and film focused on Leeds during the war, its history,people and contributions during the war. She gave us examples of some ideas they were looking for, aswell as presenting online sources we could use to find people who had an interesting or noteworthy story from the war, including diary entries made by the individuals  during the war, and letters sent home to their loved ones in Leeds, all available on the Leeds Armouries website. They also provided online information resources we could use for the other 2 briefs, such as images and sideshows of weapons, clothing, people and locations relevant to the briefs, which were all revolved around WWII. The last part was relevant to mine as I needed to research fashion of the time period, both civilian and military personnel, aswell as the firearms and vehicles of the time. I also stayed to hear the NHS representative speak and discuss their briefs. I found it interesting, their session was more interactive, with group activities for us to do. He aswell gave ideas for their briefs, but his main priority was that we did not put any inaccurate stereotype of mental disorders into our films. Although it was interesting, I have decided to stay with the Armouries brief, because its still the one that interests me most. Even if it didn't, its the day before the pitch and I have done all the work towards this brief, so no backing out now!

Research Update 4#

Here is the results of my research on the most commonly firearms used by the British military during the war:

With these images I will be able to create accurate drawings of the rifle used by most if not all of the British forces during the war, the Lee Enfield Rifle.

I also researchedthe sidearms most commonly used by the British military at the time, the revolver:

Although researching this has been useful in learning more about the weapons seen on the battlefield. I do not believe I will need to show any pistols in my animation, as only Officers would have a sidearm revolver on them, while the 'canon fodder' troops only had the rifle and bayonet.

The research for the battle locations for WW1 trench warfare are similar in appearance to that of the research I did for WW2 Battle of the Somme, but then again , trenches will look similar regardless of the time difference, and trench warfare in WW1 and WW2 were similar, both in appearance, dangers and strategies:

I also found this excellent footage from WW1 that will aid my work - CLICK HERE

The images and footage I've found will definitely help me when designing the trench scenes in my animation, creating a more accurate and authentic look to my work.

Overall I am pleased with the research I have carried out, and believe the information I have gathered of these last few days will allow me to create a n animation based on the First World War that will be both historically accurate, aswell as interesting and appealing to watch.

Research Update 3#

Here is my research result for types transportation in London in the time period, and the look of the city during the time.

These images have given me a great deal to think about when deciding which type of transportation to use in the animation, both the bus and train have their points, its difficult to decide between. The train would be a better choice as the addition of the steam and tracks would add to the foley used in the city, and strengthen the point you have been transported to a very busy London during the great war. But using a train would mean setting it in a train station. Although I could just have the train passing through on its way out of the city. It is not imperative I make a choice on this now so I shall wait, and just pick one to put in the pitch storyboard for now, then come back to it at a later stage of pre-production.

Here is the research result I've collected about the look of London during the time:

I also discovered this video on youtube - CLICK HERE 

These have given me a much better idea of how I will show a busy london street in my animation. One important thing to remember is not to draw building over 5 storeys in height, as they were very uncommon in London at the time, and sure to stand out as odd to anyone with knowledge on the subject.

Drawing Session 1

Its been a long time since we had our drawing sessions with Tom, but I think were all happy to see Tom's beard make an appearance in everyone’s life once again.

The work began with Tom explaining we would have a group collaboration of some sort, which we would be doing throughout this semester. It would be similar to what we saw the 2^nd year do last year. Creating a massive city, along with characters and buildings on a dozen sheets of A3 paper. But this week, we began the collaboration with drawing simply shapes you’d commonly find in any city, and shapes and lines that come to mind in Leeds, or any other city we know. Here is my sheet from the activity:

As you can see the drawings are not detailed or been given much time, but that was not the aim of the session. This was to get our minds thinking about the kinds of shapes and buildings we think of when we hear 'city', in preparation of beginning the city, next week. There isn’t much more to say about this particular session, other than it was nice to be back in the drawings lectures, and I looked forward to this collaboration. After seeing the work done by year above us last year, I have looked forward to this fun and creative project for months, and happy were are getting down to do it.

The collaboration has begun with each of the students creating one single building/sign/statue etc. on our individual A3 sheets, with the knowledge it would be part of a bigger drawing of the city. Therefore it needed to be an appropriate size for what the item was, for example a STOP sign shouldn’t be drawn directly in the middle of the page, the size of our hand. We were not told exactly what to draw, aslong as it was an item you would commonly find in a city. The first thing I drew on my sheet was a STOP sign, as I didn’t want to create a big building first, without thinking about the city's layout, and planning for further additions. We were given a few minutes to draw our first item, we then passed our sheets to the person on our left, while being given the sheet from the person on our right, and then be given a few more minutes to draw something on this sheet, with the result being every student having contributed to each sheet of the city, which I felt was a good thing, it strengthened the idea that this was a collaboration, and each students skill and creativity is necessary for the city we are going to create. We did this passing around sheets and each adding one item at a time to each sheet for the rest of the session, and by the end we had 6 sheets that were relatively full, and beginning to look like a functioning city. Although the sheets had less buildings that was expected, and more characters, which we were told would not be added until a future time. But of course hearing this, the students did the exact opposite and began drawing children and animals. I feel the collaboration is coming along well, and the 6 sheets put together look very impressive. I'm looking forward to next when, we we continue the same activity until the entire sheets are filled.

Research Update 2#

As I only have a week to do the research for the pitch, there will not be many of these updates for the research carried out. But will contain everything I watched, heard and studied in order to gain knowledge on the subject, and create a more historically accurate storyboard and character designs.

Here are the images that I have based my designs of the military uniform from.

These are the 2 images all my designs for military uniforms are based off. A quick search for WW1 uniforms displayed these 2 almost immediately, which I felt were the most appropriate. The uniforms are those of the low ranking men in the army, the 'grunts' on the front line. Which my character, and those around him in the trench are. The simple green shirt, pants and brown belt and boots will be much easier to draw than the more...fashionable uniforms of the higher ranking officials, such as these I found while researching:

Although I should note these uniforms vary in country of origin, from British to German, Russian and French. But all still too flashy for my animation, and ones you would not find in the trenches.

Now I came to research the civillian fashion of the time in London. Here are the images I based my designs from:

As you can see. Bright colours, big hats and long dresses. Mainly showing no legs or exposed skin. Not even a cheeky little ankle flash for the boys. The result of this research has proven troublesome, as there is far more detail in the fashion of both men & women than I hoped to have in my piece. I will incorporate what I have learned from these images into my designs. But try to tone down the level of detail, especially the hats, to make the job of animating easier.