galaxicit-blog

[galaxicit-blog]

This is the planning I made for the last period. It didn’t quite work out due to my hard drive not working anymore. I was very shocked by this, I was in a lot of panic and the first thing I did was mail my teacher. I was very anxious that I asked one of my classmates to message her, I am glad I did. she saw my message pretty fast and responded to me with that I can have some more time. 

[galaxicit-blog]

Sound design

For the sound design, I have decided to use natural sounds that you hear in the forest, I think it suits well with it. I want it to be surreal and feel like the sounds are almost too real. In combination with that, I would like to have some cartoon noises coming along to balance it off and make the mood not too serious. 

[galaxicit-blog]

3D Head

A couple of lessons we have focused on making a 3D head. Unfortunately I was sick quite a bit during that time and I made an agreement with my teacher that I could just continue with the main assignment. So I don't have much to show here in regards to that.

[galaxicit-blog]

Acting Out.

Here are some screenshots of me acting out my storyboard. 

[galaxicit-blog]

Storytelling

Many stories seem to have a similar pattern. There’s always a protagonist who goes on an adventure, makes new friends, encounters roadblocks, fights a bad guy and returns home a changed person. In fact, that is the Hero’s Journey.

The Hero's Journey is a model for both plot points and character development: as the Hero traverses the world, they'll undergo inner and outer transformation at each stage of the journey. I used the hero’s journey as a baseline for my story. It is structured and makes it easier to write a plot for your main character. 

My story is about a girl who wanders around the woods and finds a book on the ground. She picks it up and finds a bird in it leading her further into the forest. She, of course, follows the lead (to progress the story) and ends up near a trap door. She trips and falls in. She falls onto a couch of a skeleton living in there. The skeleton isn’t happy and attacks her with a bat. The bird flies out of the trapdoor and sheds its feathers, showing it was in complot with the skeleton.

[galaxicit-blog]

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Chanel and this is my animation blog. On here I will post updates about my current status. 

[galaxicit-blog]

My Style

My style is a combination of the people that inspire me, (which you can read more about on my artistic family) and my own creative ideas that come to mind. I have always liked odd and weird things, horror, cute stuff and everything in between is all that I am about. My form and style choices are very diverse and I think it depends on the project entirely. Although I do tend to prefer rounded shapes and softer colours as opposed to alpha colours. I want to convey a certain feeling that is part of the story of the animation. For example, in the case of an infographic, you would want to keep things clear and simple to make the viewer not lose the focus of the subject. With free reign, I prefer having a mix of cartoon and anime since I think it can complement each genre very well.

This is a short film that really inspires me to make something colourful and otherworldy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg9JGIiSSsQ

[galaxicit-blog]

Artistic Family

Today I would like to talk about the artists that inspired me and the styles I want to be able to identify myself with someday. 

I have different artists for every medium so to say, for cinematics, it would be Quinten Tarantino. The reason I love his work so much is his use of suspense and the unknown. He likes to dance around different stories but sharing the same thematics for every movie he creates. The storytelling is a whole other thing where he is able to keep the viewer in awe by the plot development. 

For comics, it would be the Japanese mangaka Hirihiko Araki. He is a creative genius and his comics tell stories in a very bizarre fashion. The writing is unexpected and he created a way for himself to be able to write whatever he wants in his plot, by making use of alternate universes. His art references are from fashion models, art, sculptures, band covers, western music rock bands, etc. He created his own style from what personally pleased his aesthetic and I think he is a great model for a unique expression. 

For novels, it would be J.R.R Tolkien. the way he used the most magical ideas that came to him in an experimenting way was amazing. He used Slavic mythologies to compliment his story and enriched their tales. The drawings he made helped him further flesh out what the mythologies looked like and what they were capable of. I think his method is very creative and a strategic way to build a world out of concepts. 

For animation, I have multiple studios I really admire. Studio Trigger is one of my favourites, their movements and smooth animations really speak to me on another level. I find it hard to find the words to justify how cool their works are. The best way is just to show you: https://youtu.be/VpWWGgHacFg

I wish to incorporate and use these amazing talents as a guide to animations in the future.

[galaxicit-blog]

So this was most definitely bizarre!

We made characters from paint stains, yes. This is something I had never done before. The hardest part for me was ‘’staining’’ instead of making a recognizable shape, that’s why mine looked like a tree.. oops. We had a lot of fun, but I noticed I was a hard time creating something. At the of the class, I kind of got the hang of it.

[galaxicit-blog]

In this lesson, we made characters from shapes.

It was pretty interesting, I already knew you could build up a character out of a shape but making something out of just a square and triangle, ended up being more challenging than expected.

[galaxicit-blog]

A PLOT TWIST. 

I’ve had this feeling for a while that I wanted my animation to have a conclusion rather than the vague open ending I had in mind. So I decided that it would shocking or just plain comedic to have the skeleton get angry and attack the main character with a bat?! It sounds crazy, yes I know. But this skeleton is really upset with having someone in his home. So expect a twist and turn. 

[galaxicit-blog]

So here it is, another update. 

The skeleton has taken form. I have decided to make it extra surreal and (save some time) I want to animate the latter part where my character falls into the skelly’s domain, to be in After Effects. Animate has given me a plethora of issues and I know my way around after effects. I’m glad I planned this ahead of when I thought about animating practices I wanted to use. I have already made multiple parts in After Effects and having it transition after the fall, makes it more surreal. VERY COOL GUYS, MUCH PROGRESS.

  *The green goblin character was a concept art I forgot to share that I made earlier.

( I guess you could say that is how skelly looked alive?  )

[galaxicit-blog]

15 seconds of my animation. 

I haven’t decided yet if I want to colour it. I kind of like the simplistic style it has. 

Also while animating I decided that having a note/letter coming from the book isn’t as cool as I had it imagined. I decided a book with a hidden compartment is way more magical. From the compartment, a little bird shows itself and flies out. 

[galaxicit-blog]

Some extra items for in my scene. A while ago I decided that making another universe is a bit much for my first real animation. I decided to scale it down to having the ‘’creature’’ be a skeleton. The skeleton lives in the trapdoor, and he is NOT pleased with having some random kid in his (what you could barely call) home. The place is tacky, has mould and water dripping from the ceiling. But it is his place! No intruders, GET OUT. 

[galaxicit-blog]

My storyboard. My character finds a book, looks at it and finds it suspicious. It shows a map that leads them to a trapdoor. The fall into the trapdoor and land somewhere surprising. The character meets an interesting figure, but they aren’t very pleased seeing her in their domain.

[galaxicit-blog]

Today I made some backgrounds for my animation. I am quite happy with how they turned out, the only problem I have is that I might not colour my animation due to time. But this is the style I had in my head, the colour scheme as well matches my vision. Today is a good day!

[galaxicit-blog]

This week I got feedback from my classmates for my concept. I am happy they had a lot to say. Now I have a better idea of what to improve to make it more cunning and appealing for the audience.