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Animation practice - week 12 - live brief

Now that the animation is done i only have to update on the live breif and we managed to get that done too! What a relief, it was so fun speaking to new people and working with some of my talented peers, everyone did so well and im happy we did this project. Overall i am happy with the project for the time we had and enjoyed making it, we all put our own little creative stamps on it which is very cool. I still hate hearing my voice in it but what can you do. Here it is in full

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Animation practice - final audio animation

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Animation practice - week 11 - live project

This was a crazy 2 weeks, i managed to get the animation done! Very very fine margins as it was at the end of this week but im happy with that. I overall think it moves a little quick and some scenes could use more time in the oven but I believe it tells the story i wanted to tell from the start which is all i couldve asked for 5 weeks ago. I really like the first segment with the character i feel like i did a good job on his movement! I will post it in a separate tab so i can upload the whole thing.

As for the love brief, i was able to get the rest of the scenes done i needed to, in total i animated 2 scenes, did some colouring and inbetweening here and there, did the voice, all the backgrounds and the storyboarding which is a hell of a lot. Heres one of the scenes i worked on with sprite, the cute little tree seed fairy.

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Animation practice - week 10 - live project

The animation is really coming along and im building good momentum with it to finish on time. i went back and finished one of the first scenes that is very long, i like the look of it and am happy with how its going so far. I also got one of my coursemates to record audio for me for the character and am chipping away at other folio as i go.

As for the live project, it was a busy week for me. It started with me and another member of the group having to do some voice recording. The script needed a lot of editing as it was over 3x the length allowed for the short but we managed to make something workable. I have never done anything like this as i hate the sound of my own voice but what came out was passable.

Then i was tasked with doing the backgrounds for all the scenes so i got started on that, i managed to get the first 2 done this week which is good progress, i like the way they look and the group leader approved them which is even better, next week is the beginning of the easter break meaning 2 weeks to crack on and get stuff done.

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Animation practice - week 9 - live brief

This week we found out what briefs got chosen and sadly mine didn’t. Weirdly enough the brief that got chosen was completely unfinished which i found strange as there was a third of a story board and only 1/4 characters designed in the story but its what has been chosen so i cant complain. We spent the first day finishing the story and getting a storyboard done which was done by both me and then the last scene by the group leader. This is the storyboard that came from that.

As for the other project i finalised all of the backgrounds and did some renders for the other side which im deciding to keep as 3d but go back to the dingy look from early weeks by making it black and white which i think could be effective.

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Animation practice - week 8 - live brief

This week was the start of a new project, although i am still behind on the other project so ill start these off with an update on the old project. I am chipping away at it scene by scene, i can only add one video so i will add my biggest scene i completed that week here. This week it was the reflection scene, i wanted this one done quickly as it was the centre of the story. Originally i was going to have the character be pulled through the mirror and change mediums live but because of the time and medium limitations its just not possible for me right so i had to make some creative choices.

But anyways, the new project! It is my first time working with a client and we are tasked with making a 30-40 second advertisement for them which is very interesting. We were given just 2 days to create an entire pitch for them which is crazy but i managed to get everything done miraculously, here is the storyboard, concept image and a style frame which im very happy with.

I wanted to make this more infographic based to give my group less work but make it more visually direct with its messaging, being about what you can but for the same price as a subscription which i thought was a good idea!

This was also the last session of life drawing in which we had to peruse mill road and draw people in action, i decided to draw my coursemates drawing other people which i thought was quite funny. I used a brush pen and really enjoyed it and feel like i made some good sketches.

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Animation practice - week 7 - audio animation

The last official week for this project, i have somewhat clawed myself back from the depths of despair to try and get this project rolling. I did a slight redesign of the character to help me get on with this quickly. Im going to use the opportunity of having the 3d environment to save time on backgrounds by using them as reference, this way i can plan my shots out which im very happy about, these are the camera positions i chose.

These allow for a technique called shot reverse shot with the character and his reflection. I feel these angles are also more interesting than what was in the storyboard. I attempted using 2d animation with these scenes and am very happy with my result, i wish i started this way so i had enough time to do the things i wanted to do with this project, but everything happens for a reason right?

We had a break from the life drawing this week so i decided to take this opportunity to complete the concept art piece, because this was allowed to be a background that pans in our film i decided to do the opening scene in the bar, i played around with some angles and settled on the one that felt right, i feel as though the walls are a little bare but overall happy with what i could do in spite of the time limit.

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Animation practice - week 6 - audio animation.

Panic time! The rig was not working and the character has no articulation in his fave or hands as its way above my skill level, i attempted an animation with it and it came out so stiff and awkward, we are so far in but i feel i can’t continue with this medium even though it was a real cool idea, i will just have to make it all 3d which is very disappointing.

I also made a finalised story board to go with my animation. I changed some things around but am still unsure about the ending, a very bad week for me and lots of work to do over the week to fix it.

We had another life drawing session too. This time using 2 colours and more impressionism. I quite liked this as i draw quite geometrically anyways, but as always it didnt quite click as well as i wanted it to, very bad week indeed.

I also did two scenes to use in my project that will now sadly be scrapped as i am now using 2d, its a shame because of the time lost but i learnt a lot during and it will not go to waste.

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Animation practice - week 5 - audio project

Great progress for this week! Finished the 3d model and the bathroom, they both turned out great and i just need to rig the character so i can animate it! The render view is so nice and atmospheric I definitely like the red being in there better than it just being just black and white.

We also had more life drawing this week. I struggled a lot this week as on the way to uni my bag got soaked in the rain and my charcoal went all matted which is a big shame. I was also standing at a very bad position and kept getting poses with a non interesting shape or no interesting lighting. But theres a few in there i think came out okay regardless.

And we had our second and final session of the concept art class, due to the other stuff i was doing i was unable to complete this but i will absolutely be coming back to this

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Animation practice - week 4 - audio animation

Another busy week for this module. I started the 3d model for the character im going to animate… thats right, 3d animation?! I have never done it before so hopefully i can figure something out. I am sculpting it with poly’s entirely in maya, so far i have a humanoid shape so baby steps i guess. A design was needed for this however so i also had to make a turn around for the character which you can see below

I also got a great start on the 3d bathroom, it looks really dingy at the moment which is atmospheric but im not sure i like it being completely black and white, we will see where this one goes but a great start right now!

I also drew up a little concept for my short, as one of our new projects is a small 2 week concept art piece which is cool, i thought id do a quick sketch so i can go back into it later

We also had life drawing start again this week! Absolutely piling on the projects this term for some reason… very stressful but it has to be done. Started the session with small charcoal so was not getting the texture i want, but for the last pose one of my friends gave me a bigger piece and its easily my favourite of the lot, got some good texture in, maybe i can draw after all

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Animation practice - week 3

This week was a busy one for development, i started by outlining my story with storyboards, first on sticky notes, then twice more to flesh out what i want to do. This was difficult and i struggled quite a bit as timing isnt always what im good at so i hope this all lines up properly.

I then started on a mood board to get an idea of what i want the project to look like, i then also drew some sketches on top taking inspiration from these pictures. I leaned more surreal with these photos as the soul is an abstract concept. I also liked the idea of mirrors, as when i look at myself in the mirror i dont always recognise myself, as you see it from an angle you dont normally get photos taken of you with. Mirrors are also explored greatly by lots of artists for its personal connotations and effects it has on people, so i feel as though this will be good for the way i want to tell the story.

I also thought about the layout the bathroom will be set out in, as its the main place of the animation i thought id try and plan the scene to have good camera angles with a view to potentially make this in 3d

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Animation practice - week 2 - audio animation

Over the week i did further investigation into the 2 items of my choice and wrote down what i found, alongside redrawing the items with some colour to better familiarise myself with them.

When we arrived into the class we was given a prompt out of a hat, something to give us a nudge in the right direction and start our ideas off of. I got ‘acceptance’

Acceptance is a very broad word, i decided to focus in on the mask and its links to the soul and spirit rather than the mysterious deer skull. I explored my ideas in the form of a few mind maps.

The central idea i was hooked on was an idea of viewing the soul, as i thought that tied well in with the ‘acceptance prompt. The soul is viewed as your true self, and your true self might not always be someone you want to accept as yourself as it always will have some parts you dont like. I potentially will explore this visually through 2 different mediums. I feel as though a VISUAL contrast will aid in the narrative contrast. Ended the week by creating a short play in my notes app to go off of.

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Animation practice - Week 1 - museum visit

This is the first week of term 2 in the Animation practice module. For this we visited the anthropology museum in cambridge. We we’re tasked with finding a few items of interest to us and to think about a 30-40 second story to tell inspired by those.

The museum was full of interesting artefacts from well over 1000 years ago from all over the world which was very interesting. 2 pieces caught my eye however, a deer skill and an Inuit mask.

The deer skull was found in mysterious circumstances, over 20 of them were found in Germany and its origin and purpose is still currently unknown. The mask, however, we know more about. It originated from Greenland and was used by the Inuit people in celebrations and rituals as a way to visualise the bring to the soul, i thought this was very interesting so chose those to investigate, i also drew some other items that caught my eye.