Production Update 2#

Today I finished the opening trench sequence which I started yesterday. I think its good. But the first thing that pops into mind everytime I see it is that I should redo the fat soldier. For some reason the brush tool is thicker, and I didn't notice until exporting. It doesn't take away from the scene too much, if any. But personally it stands out to me like a soar thumb. If I have time, I will come back and redo the soldier to make him fit in with the rest of the soldiers. The arm movements of the main character and sergeant are a little rigid, but overall good. I am unsure yet if the whistle scene is effective as Ill need to draw and add the train conductor to know, timing wise.

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Production Update 1#

Today I finally set about working on the final armouries animation. I began by going through my final, animatic once more, to refresh my memory on the scenes and camera angles. I decided to work from a new flash file, instead of converting the animatic into the final piece, as I have changed my mind about a few scenes.

I started off easy, getting the rain animation done. I attempted to use a script to get this done, and tried to find a source online, that could either show how to create the script, or simply give me a pre existing script which I could paste into my file. After an hour of searching I still couldn't find anything that was what I was looking for, so I scrapped the idea of using a script, and drew 4 frame which Id double frame, and loop throughout the trench scenes. It only took a short amount of time, but I feel it is effective, and with the addition of sound will have the viewer convinced.

The success of the rain began my momentum, and I decided I'd do the first 15 second, trench sequence tonight. I followed the same process I used in the animatic. I drew all the backgrounds and symbols in the same scene, and had them tween to and from the work space in time with the animation. I drew the main background, the trench, and objects within it first. It came out well. Although it was trickier than I first thought itd be in the animatic, and needed to invest some time into making it look like a realistic trench from the first war, so barbed wire and planks where the main things I wanted to show. I considered maybe putting in some blood and dismembered limbs, but such things would distract the viewer from the main point of the scene, and only raise questions. It'd also be inaccurate. Blood wouldn't stand out against the darkened wet soil around it, and any limbs or 'bits' of soldiers close to the trench would be removed and disposed of as soon as possible.

I did modify from the animatic here. I had the character sitting and resting against the trench wall instead of standing in the middle, which seemed very weird when thinking about the fear I wanted to show the character to have. A scared soldier wouldn't be standing in the middle of the trench and seem almost eager to go over the wall and fight. He'd be tired, scared, and trying to hide and escape from the violence.

I also switched from the 3 clouds moving in the opening, and explosions, to still clouds and thunder. I did this as I felt it was stupid to have 3 small cloud moving under a giant rain cloud, and to save time. Lighting only needs one frame and then a complete white frame to be effective and realistic, while half a dozen explosions of different size and shapes would take ages.

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Its a strong start. I feel the rain in realistic, and matched the timing and duration of the tweens as I had originally envisioned in the animatic. The next step now is to add the characters, their movements, and the final whistle scene.

Sound Update 3#

Just a notification. As none of the sound students have gotten back to me by now. I've decided I'm going to do the sound myself and mover forward with production.

Self Initiated Study 2 - Anticipation

For the second self initiated study we focused on the second principle of animation - Anticipation. After going through the animation book, and seeing some examples online, studying the timing and duration of the keyframes, we went about creating it at home. I decided to make a character punching, and would use the character design I used for the storyboard in the drawing sessions. I believe it came out well. I had to switch the robot arm to the left side to make the punch facing the screen, but dont think that takes anything away from the animation. I feel the timing of the frames is well done, and looks realistic. It slows into the anticipation and preparation of throwing a punch, and then speed up to after the punch has landed.

Drawing Update 10#

Today I decided to give Coat Reddington another look, and create a perspective drawing of the city from a street. This is the first time I've drawn a perspective in a few months, but I don't think its too bad:

Obviously I haven't finished it, and have will need another sitting to finish all the buildings and fill it in more. I've filled in the background and airspace with things I remember seeing in the city, for example the giant rabbit, Greggs blimp and 3 suns in the air.

I feel like the city has become more alive for me after starting this piece. You feel like youve jumped into the world with everything going on around you. I may add colour to this once I've finished, or just parts to make them stand out. But I prefer pencil, as is obvious from all the work I've done. It may be useful for me to experiment with more material. 

Drawing Update 9#

Today we focused back on the Coat Reddington. We were instructed to design a character that would fir in the chaos that's happening in our city, and create a story for the character within the city. From there, we would create a 12 panel storyboard, applying what we've learned from the life drawing sessions to the poses shown in the panels. I began with some brainstorming just to get into the flow and get some ideas moving:

After designing a few faces I decided to go with the bottom far left design, and work on it more. I knew I wanted him to be a cyborg of some sort, but didn't know to what extent I wanted, so I created a handful of different ideas for his limbs, hair and body shape:

After making my final decision on what to use, I started drawing the character in various position to get comfortable with the shape and lines needed for the various poses, aswell as a large piece with felt tip and colour to see what the character would look like, as the storyboard will be in black and white:

After all the planning I went straight into doing the storyboard. Here it is:

I'm very happy with it. I feel like Ive showed the character in various poses from different angel, and applied what I've learnt from the model sketching, to my animation work. I also scanned in some of the panels and added colour using photoshop, aswell as strengthening the outlining:

Drawing Update 8#

Its been a roughly a week since the last time I've drawn outside of Tom's lectures, since I decided to focus on the essay and finish it now, rather than worry about it days before its due. Here are the results:

30 Minute Drawing

I feel like my shading skill is improving. Perhaps only slightly, but still improvement over my shading work from last year. This was also the first 30 minute drawing I had done this year. I believe my line work in it is strong, and the shading effective. Although it is cell shading, I still feel its effective.

As you can see I am still focusing primarily on female models as we still have done none in the lectures aside from the one that fainted...then again maybe thats a good thing?

I also attempted to apply what I've learned from sketching to my character designs. I believe they came out well:

Although I had to look up more muscular models online to get the basis to draw these. I believe they came out well. The muscle grooves do seem similar in design to that used in the animated film Hercules, which I didn't plan. For a first go I think they're good. It also gave me a chance to try out adding clothing and weaponry. From these I will create more designs and improve my technique and apply more of what I learn to my animation work.

Self Initiated Study 1 - Stretch and Squash

Today was the first meeting of the 2nd and 3rd year of the animation course. We've set these meetings up as we feel like the course hasn't been teaching enough software and animation principles. It was primarily a meet and greet, and show our most recent work to show at what level we all were. It was clear from the work that there is a massive difference in the quality of work between the 2nd and 3rd year. But hopefully depending how next week goes, we will make some progress and improvement. A 3rd year student showed us an animating book which he felt was very useful - The Animator's Survival Kit - which I bought immediately when I got home.

Not much work was generally done in this session, since it was the first, but we did set in place an exercise for all of us to do by next week, which is to make a squash and stretch animation of a ball bouncing. I'm happy were finally going to learn some software use, but still irritated this is something we didn't really touch upon last year aside from one week.

Here is the result of my attempt at the stretch and squash animation. It is my third attempt at trying it out. The first had the arc but as I had done it as one continuous tween couldn't add the ease in and out to the ball. I'm assuming there is a way to do this, but each time I tried to split the motion it'd move the position of the ball, and so I tried again, and got the weight of the ball correct, but couldn't get the arc to show up, again I'm assuming this is due to my inexperience with flash. But as you can see I eventually figured out a way to do it, maybe not amazing (the second bounce seems a bit off to me in both speed and distance covered, the monday session will give me a chance to see if I'm right about this). Overall, I am quite happy with it. I've never done this before, and although extremely basic, something me and my fellow students have yet to do yet on the course, so for a first go and around 2 hours of work, I consider this a success, and a great start to the self initiated studies

We will bring in the animations we have created next monday, and as a group discuss and give constructive feedback and suggestions on how to improve on it further. Hopefully with weekly sessions like this. We might actually learn how to animate.

Drawing Update 7#

Today in Tom's session we again did life model drawing, but this time used ink as a medium. My initial thoughts on this were 'oh no, not again' as I disliked using it last year, but I found this exercise with ink wasn't too bad. Today also marked the first session were we focused on shading instead of just the outlining shape.

We began with 30 second poses, and tried to get down as many lines we could on the page, but primarily focus on getting the shading done. We also had to use sticks we found outside to do them with. Here are the results:

Not really happy with these. Ive never gotten used to actually creating anything remotely similar to the human body in these 30 seconds, theres no time to actually look at the body and draw the shape correctly, and I end up with these weird looking aliens. Also my stick has a bend to it and difficult to hold in my hand. But I did get the shading down in some way, which I am happy about.

The next exercise we drew 3 sketches of 3 different 20 minute poses. We did it with pencil, only doing the outline shape and size of the body, with no details as we would then go back and go over it in ink. Here is what it looked like before we went on to add the ink:

Quite happy with these 3. I feel they show the progress I've made in the past few weeks. In fact I was worried Id ruin the sketches when applying the ink and lose the work. But luckily wed be using paint brushed instead of the sticks, which I was grateful for. I went with small brush size instead of Toms advice to use a larger brush, as I know my skill with a brush are quite amateur, and a smaller brush would mean a less chance of me going over the line and messing the drawing.

But thankfully it came out well:

I'm happy with what I created, although for the first drawing I misunderstood what Tom had asked us to do, and messed up the shading for it. I did attempt to fix it, and have to some extent, although it still looks like there seems to be 2 light sources on either sides. Tom also said we could go over the pencil outline at the end so there'd be no trace of the pencil, but we had to do it with the stick again, insted of the brush. I did go for the ink outline on the first one, but the ink wasnt drying fast enough and was smudging at some parts, so I didnt for the other two as I could see the ink was still wet.

Drawing Update 6#

Here is the work I have done over the course of the last few days:

I believe my work shows the improvement the drawing sessions has done

Oh! What A Lovely War!

Today we watched the 1969 musical film 'Oh! What a Lovely War', directed by Richard Attenborough, and adapted from the stage musical of the same name. The film is a comic satire of the events of the first world war, with the songs parodying the popular songs of the time.

Personally I enjoyed this film. Out of all of the ones we have watched, this has been a favourite of mine. I think is because it reminded me of the humour used in Monty Pythons work. This scene came to mind immediately when a similar scene played in Lovely War.

The strategic events of the war and decisions of authority are set in a pavilion on a fictional pier-head commonly found in seaside towns popular with tourists. This is used to show how different and distant away the figures of power in the war were from the trenches and battlefields, safe and sound in friendly territory. The film also uses quotes from the diplomatic figures of the time at the beginning to show how relations between them were generally favourable and not wanting to go to war. It also shows how each country entered the war without realising the seriousness of the issue,expecting it to be over within a few months. Because of this, the war was 'marketed' as a vacation or trip that everyone should see, and the public ate into it. When the pier-head for the first world war, everyone buying a ticket at the booth to get into the war. Towards the end of the film, we see how the attitude of the soldiers has changed dramatically. Most having seen the brutality of the war, but also the pointlessness of it. Jack's last battlefield shown to be the first he entered 3 years prior, designating the lack of progress made in territory gained. After his death we are also shown the end of the war, summarized as 4 figures representing the allies and Germany sitting around a table signing the Armistice of Germany.

Although I did find some of the remarks and satire about the war a bit too obvious. Such as the Staff Sergeant discussing comparing the difficulties they were having in the war room (Pier-head pavilion) to the men on the front lines.

An interesting coincidence about this film is the way it links to my client Orientated brief. Maggie Smith's music number shows how men were pressured and blackmailed by propaganda and the public (women primarily) to enlist and fight. Although I cannot work what I gained from this film into my work at this point, it was useful for the motivation I gained to work on the film and convey the message these boys were forced to enlist, even before conscription.

Elroy Workshop 1

Today Elroy came in and we did similar exercises as we did in his workshops last year, creating a 21 frame animation on animating paper using a light-box. But this time our work would be pieced together at the end to have an animation of a band playing.

We began with Elroy reintroducing us to the basics, and then explaining the project. Which was to draw and animate one character, who would then be added together at the end of Elroy's workshop. We were also given the option of working on something that could be worked into our client orientated brief. But I think we all wanted a break from that work.

The instructions given were to create a character with an instrument of some sort - or anything found in a band. I went with a headbanger with a microphone and then animate his hair flowing back and forth. I began with drawing the designs, and then sizing it down and to the location it would be in, in the the final collaborations band. From there I drew the key frames, and from there drew the in between frames for it. Looking back now, I wish I had gone with a more detailed design, or perhaps have 2 movements within the animation, perhaps his hand in the air rocking back and forth. I also shouldn't have redrawn the parts of the body that dont move on each frame, and instead, only redraw the parts of the body that move. Then all I'd have to do is overlay the frames together to create the animation.

In the next workshop, I believe we will be scanning the frames in and piercing the animation together.

Drawing Update 5#

Today I practiced my life modelling drawing again, but this time instead of focusing on the details, I focused on the body as a while, like we've been doing in the life modelling session.

Here are the results of the practice of one model;

Im happy with these 2. Plotting out the joints before hand helps get the measurements and proportions of the limbs correct, and I feel they are overall better than the drawings Ive created in the session. But that could be because I have to stand  for 3 hours and use a blasted easel in ever session and feel the pressure of having only 10 minutes to draw always on me.

Lastly I tried my hand at drawing a model using the entire page;

This time I went with a female model as I had done males before, and still only had one life modelling with a female (which was cut short due to her passing out on the table), so want to get more experience with it. I believe it came out well. I do feel the legs and lower body are thicker than I was expecting, it may look ok, but if you were to compare it to the image of the model, it would stand out I'm guessing.

Next time I may touch upon shading and use of light in my drawings, but of course what I practice in my spare time depends on what we do in the session. As its purpose is to strengthen the work we do and ultimately improve my skill.

Budget Update 2#

Here is my updated budget;

I've added a few additional columns that we brought up in discussion while being given the feedback. I've added an expected price column to show what I initially believed the prices of the equipment to be when first asked to give a rough number. As you can see my rough numbers were close to the actual prices. I've also added a total cost for each of the price and costs columns to get a better idea of the amount of money that's actually involved in this project. Ive also changed the 'Status' column to a 'Notes' column as I need to show the math needed to calculate the full cost of the 4 months I will spend on this project. I've kept the actual budget cost column although it wasnt well recieved in the feedback, because its still more useful than the others. Without this column I would have no idea how much money is being spent solely because of the project.

Drawing Update 4#

After the first life modelling session, I remembered how my skills are lacking in the subject, notably in the details, such as hands and noses. So to improve this, I've been doing short exercises at home in my spare time.

Here are photos of my exercises in drawing cartoon hands;

I believe these exercises were a benefit to me, as I know have a clearer idea of how to make more awkward poses with the hands, aswell as the correct grooves on the thumb, and size of the fingers in relation to eachother and as part of the hand. Hopefully I will be able to use what I've learned here in my animation and character designs.

After this I tried my hand at some realistic hand tutorials. Here are the results;

I'm very happy with these. The fingers are proportionate, and have the details necessary to look realistic. I'm also happy that I looked at the details of the space between the fingers, and how they actually look. I drew the hand clutching the axe to prepare and practice for work we will be doing in the future involving the armouries. I feel its a success, the knuckles are in the position they actually are on a human hand when grasping something tightly. The fingers are also clearly bending inwards, which is again accurate on a closed hand.

Then I turned to noses. Here are the results;

As you can see the results aren't anything of real mention, neither is the quantity. I stopped and switched guides and styles quite often because they bored me rather suddenly once I began. Maybe its because I do not find the nose very interesting to draw. Only so few lines go into it, but yet it is still an extremely important feature of the face, so I need to atleast learn how to adequately draw noses of various shapes and sizes from different angles.

Drawing Session 6 - Mic Artistic Workshop

Today we had a workshop with Mic Artistic instead of our usual sessions with Tom. Id been looking forward to this workshop for some days now, as we were told all three years of animation students would be attending. We show up, and there’s roughly a bakers dozen of us, instead of the expected 40. No surprise for the animation department really. Mic Artistic introduced himself, and talked about his past 30 years of life, making income through his art and music, although as the session progressed, I began to believe his income was primarily from his music. Although his stories were entertaining, infact I believe he has led quite an interesting life with many a tale to tell to peak your curiosity. But he did say it hasn't been a very wealthy path, financially. This is something I've heard before, and still don’t like hearing, especially with the amount of money me and my fellow students are investing in learning these skills, that are apparently not worth very much in the real world. We were told my Mic that we would be working only in pens for this session, and only on paper bags, which was Mic's medium, and used to create everything of his.

The first exercise was drawing a very quick and squiggly portrait of our partner, only observing our partner, and not looking at the paper at all. Obviously this isn’t something most, including me could follow to a tee, but I tried to keep my eyes on my partner as much as I could, while still making sure It wasn’t becoming an abomination on the page. Here is the result:

Not really much to say about this. 5 minutes to create it and not looking at the page isn’t going to create a masterpiece.

The second exercise was creating a real portrait of our partner, this time given 15 minutes, so there was plenty of time to give detail and focus on the work. Here it is:

I'm much happier with this than the one before, as the extra 10 minutes gave us the time to add the detail necessary to bring the drawing to life. According to Mic, I had successfully captured the expression shown on my partner's face. I was happy with this piece, as I felt the pen lines were bold and strong around the eyes and nose, successfully having captured my partner's mood.

The third exercise was to create a comic strip, illustrating an original song of Mic Artistic. I choose this song to illustrate, as it seemed the one with the easiest narrative to follow:

Here is the comic strip I drew, we were given 20 minutes on this particular one:

I don’t really have any strong feeling about this one way or another. I did it very basic, with not much detail because of the time limit, so it didn’t really challenge my skill or anything of that manner. So as an education exercise it wasn’t beneficial, rather just a fun 20 minute doodle session.

The next exercise was creating a caricature of our partner, here is my work:  

Again, no real strong feelings for this particualar piece. Ive never really liked caricatures, either looking at them or creating them.

The last exercise was picking a pen at random from Mic's collection, and creating a small fictionally written story about the pen's history. I wrote a small story about it being a killer robot built by the US to kill Kim Jong Un, and included a small illustration of it:

Again, this exercise had no real benefit, other than a fun 15 minutes.

Overall, I felt the session with Mic Artistic was exactly how it was described in the email – A fun drawing session – and wasn’t much else. The main take away from this session was Mic's personal advice to us about life and work. Is it better to be doing something you enjoy with your life? Rather than having 'enough' money, but hating your job? This is a question I still don’t have an answer to. But with the information I've learned today about us not being told about script writing sessions, the film school seems to have made the choice for me. I will be broke with no money, and have no real world animating skills learned from university to do what I'm 'passionate' about. Terrific, ain’t it?

Writer and Script Update 3#

This is not a direct update about my writer, but one about the script. Apparently, the 3 of us that were green-lit for the pitch, were suppose to have been in script writing sessions since the beginning of the term...so we’ve missed, going on 6 weeks now, worth of script writing sessions, because of the poor state of the communication skills in use at the film school. Only Chris was emailed about these sessions. They didn't even have the time, or maybe the necessary level of concentration needed, to email all 3 of us that they had dropped the ball. Then again seeing as this problem occurred because they didn’t email us in the first place, what hope was there they'd be able to do, such an apparently difficult task, this time?