Context of Practice 1: Visual Journal

Context of Practice 1

Visual Journal

After my research for the essay, my visual journal focuses on how studios create sense of realism using CG animation and whether the "authentic" appeal is required to make the story or characters immersive and full of life. I decided to explore this idea once finishing my essay, and with the research I conducted, explore CG creatures and environments within the journey of my journal. This also included looking at Concept Art for my case studies and understanding how this was later transferred to CG.

Although I may have explored Avatar, Harry Potter and Star Wars in my essay, in my research I also looked at the Disney "live-action" remakes and and how the environments and creature design contributed to authentic worlds.

Process and Production: Character Design and Development Improvements

Process and Production

Character Design and Development Improvements

When designing Meara, I initially struggled with drawing human figures, however made a series of adjustments to her design based upon the feedback I was given. In my initial design, her proportions felt incorrect and she didn't feel like the character I wanted her to be.

Then, I redrew this design to produce a more defined figure and shape. I additionally added more folds to the clothing to appear baggier, as suggested in feedback.

Once changing the clothes, I adjusted the muscles to make her appear leaner and added colour. The back pose was also adjusted.

I finally made changes to her 3/4 pose, by slightly lifting the right arm and changing the left. This was also done to improve Sumacs' turnaround sheet.

Process and Production: Scripting and Storyboarding

Process and Production

Scripting and Story-boarding

For the process of story-boarding and developing a script, I needed to know more information about both of my characters, therefore I developed a mind-map and character sheet for both to understand them. Once this was completed, I tried to follow a story-type which is heavily used in Adventure and chose to focus on 'The Quest'.

In my planning, I struggled initially to think about how the antagonist was going to try to take the "magical item" from Meara, however, I thought to incorporate his dark magic power. I wanted to demonstrate that Sumac, as a character, isn't perfect nor able to completely use the dark spells correctly, thus resulting in Meara regaining control and running away. 




To develop my backgrounds, I researched use of colour and looked at 'The Noble Appraoch' by Tod Polson, whom looks at Maurice Nobles' approach to layout and backgrounds. The use of bold and bright colours is evident in their work and using more saturated tones in the foreground to create sense of depth and space. They use colour to indicate mood and to further improve my backgrounds, I would like to use this technique.

To begin to plan my storyboard, I will start by using sticky notes, as used by other studios. I thought the process of post-it note storyboards would prove useful, as you can easily change and adapt before making the final product.

This post-it note storyboard was then transferred to a digital storyboard, containing camera movement, lighting and shadows and character movement, visible in the colour co-ordinated sheet. I could improve on this by varying my shots more to create visual interest, however I did try to add further interest in contrast of light, which was something I didn't utilise in the previous module.

Process and Production: Maya Induction

Process and Production

Maya Induction

As I had used Maya before I had some basic understanding of the interface, however I still was only a beginner in the learning process. During the induction, I learnt the basics of creating objects, shapes and adapting and changing shapes to fit with the environment Im trying to create.

I created a circle of stones, by playing around with the polygon tools and used smoothing to smooth edges. I also created a scene of toy blocks for the purpose of the induction.

I need further practise in modelling in Maya and hopefully I may be able to use the software as part of my animation in the future.

Process and Production: Character Design and Development

Process and Production

Character Design and Development

Antagonist Development and Turnaround Sheets

For the antagonist, I wanted to create a character that incorporated a skeleton and animal creature. This would therefore fit in the theme of fantasy, similar to using a Dragon or Mythical creature. The antagonist design started as a canine creature, however this was soon changed to a bird, as it fit the archetype of a Sovereign better.

To create appeal, I used sharp edges and triangular shapes, along with a grey colour scheme, with red eyes, which - according to Bryan Tillman - symbolises power. I created a variety of different colour schemes, however I felt the muted colours worked better to make the reds stand out and indicate him as a devious character. 

Focusing on improving my character designs, I used improvements from the Meara turnaround to help make this turnaround created have more appeal, such as using shapes to show character and colour.

Antagonist Turnaround

Antagonist Model Sheets

Concept/Interaction Ideas

 I wanted to use a sketchy and stylised look for the backgrounds and environments, so I tried illustrating the characters in a similar style to demonstrate how they would interact. However, for the purpose of animation and keeping things simple, I will continue with the lined style.

Professional Practise 1: Who's Who? What do they do and who do they work for?

Professional Practise 1

Study Task 9: Professional Practitioners

Concept Artists

1. Natasha Tan - http://www.natasha-tan.com/

• Natasha Tan is a concept artist, who works for Ubisoft, producing realistic concept art for a variety of games, such as Assassins Creed and Rise of the Tomb Raider. Her style captures mass of space and structures, whilst including colour concepts and shadow and light, within her paintings. She primarily works digitally and with environment paintings being her main outcomes in her portfolio.

2. Claire Hummel - https://www.clairehummel.com/

• Claire Hummel is currently an art director working for Valve, however she has worked in illustration, concept art and currently working on 'In the Valley of Gods'. Her work is consists of both stylised pieces and realism, in contrast to Natashas' work. She creates pieces ranging from stylised portraits and character designs to realistic environments and landscapes.

3. Shaddy Safadi - http://www.shaddyconceptart.com/

• Shaddy Safadi is a digital game artist, who worked on games such as Uncharted 2 and now currently works as a freelance artist. He creates both stylised and realisitc concept art, such as the realistic style used for The Last of Us and in his portfolio is work features more stylised pieces for other projects. A lot of his paintings are done "Digital Plein Air" thus painting from life, outdoors, but on a digital tablet, in order to capture the realism and depth in his work.

Background Artist

1. Gina Garavalia

• Gina Garavalia is an illustrator, concept artist and designer who graduated in 2016 with a BFA in Art and Design. Her work consists of both realistic and stylised background art and she demonstrates imagination and wonder in this. She also enjoys fantasy paintings and works in freelance at the moment.

2D and 3D Animators

1. Trent Correy - http://trentanimation.blogspot.com/

• Trent Correy is a 2D and 3D Character Animator currently working at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He worked on character animation in Moana, Zootopia, Big Hero 6 and Frozen. In an Instagram post, he admitted he'd only been using CG Animation software for a year, whilst working on Frozen and eventually he was able to master the tools. He is based in LA, California and is currently working on Frozen 2. Due to his work in both CG and 2D Animation, I chose to add him to the list of practitioners.

2. Aaron Blaise

• As a feature film director, concept artist, character designer and animator, I chose to also add Aaron Blaise to the list, because of the variety of roles he has worked within and his experience in the industry of animation. He has worked as an animator in films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. He draws and animates primarily animals and his work recently consists of tutorials and help videos for aspiring artists and animators.

Professional Practise 1: Competition

Professional Practise 1

Study Task 8: Competition

https://www.animatricks.net/competition/

Animatricks is an animation festival, which hosts a competition looking for films with unique storytelling, character design and style and techniques. A minimum of 70% of the film must be animated.

https://www.ntu.edu.sg/NTUdigitalartprize/Pages/home.aspx

This competition in Singapore is open for international artists and the artwork submitted can be any size, medium and genre, thus animations, concept art and backgrounds can be submitted.

https://aninetfest.com/

Anietfest is a competition festival and although the duedate for submissions have passed, another competition opens for the next festival 20th February 2019

http://www.loopdeloop.org/

Loopdeloop is an international animation challenge, based in Melbourne, Australia. The loopdeloop submission must fit the months' theme and loop.

http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/current

The 11 Second Club holds monthly competitions, for any medium of animation. The January theme features a transcript, with talking, encouraging people to create character animation. Mediums include CGI, 2D Animation and Stop-Motion

https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/students/contests

Blizzard have a variety of art competitions, such as for Environment Design, Character Concepts and Animation Contests, with a variety of set themes and designs. These are all Student-catered competitions to help those engage with the professional industry.

I found it difficult to find many competitions which catered towards beginner/amateur animators, or for specific mediums. I think that if I were to take part in an art-based competition, it would have to be a themed one, where any medium was accepted as part of the process.

Process and Production: Character Design and Development

Process and Production

Character Design and Development

Protagonist Development and Turnaround Sheets

Due to the idea that I decided to explore Adventure, I wanted to create an Urban-Explorer character, with the Explorer archetype. I also incorporated the Fantasy element into the character design too, to create more visual interest.



The first set of designs I created were of a Urban explorer, whom weilded weapons and committed crime through break-ins. This design was soon changed when I pushed the design further, adding muscles, additional clothing items and pointed ears to created an Elven explorer, whom roams castles and abandoned cities for magical gems. I wanted to give her a rock-climber physique, so added more muscle and ropes to the design.

The First Turnaround Design

I recieved feedback from others, telling me the character needed more muscle and appeal and that the hands were incorrect on the pose facing the back. I decided to improve this on the re-done T-Pose sheet.

I used page 133-138 of the book Creative Character Design by Bryan Tillman to help with the turnaround poses. To further improve, I was told to change the hands on the back pose and push the design further. I did this by starting with a silhouette, then drawing over this.

Second Turnaround Design

I posted the second design to have feedback and I was told to add further folds to the clothing to make it appear less flat and adjust the shape of her body on the final T-Pose, which I was able to quickly adapt before moving onto the colouring process. When colouring my design, I wanted to research other uses of colour in aesthetic. I looked at the book Creative Character Design by Bryan Tillman, for choosing blues for her scarf, to represent confidence and power. 

Third Turnaround Design, with improvements and added colour

Final Turnaround Design with Muscle Adjustments

With the final turnaround improvements, I changed her muscles slightly to make her appear more lean, as the rock-climber physique reflects this. Her final design was further illustrated in a model sheet, containing a variety of dynamic poses.

Fully Rendered Model Sheet

Process and Production: Study Task 1

Process and Production

Study Task 1: Research and Refinement

The process of researching the genre was overall quite difficult, because the genre of Adventure is quite broad and can apply and feed into other genres. I found that the initial research of the genre itself, in terms of film, novels and animation was simple in finding the general tropes. I had to analyse and dig further to understand generic conventions and character roles, within the genre, however through analysing some Adventure films, I was able to find a comparison and overall theme. To narrow down the genre, I also chose to explore Fantasy along-side this, as a hybrid.

The generic conventions of Adventure are usually identified through the environments, the protagonists' journey and the final outcome of the narrative. I think that I can improve on my research skills by identifying more specific texts to analyse and include further research from other sources, such as journals.

Professional Practice 1: Disseminate

Professional Practice 1

Disseminate Research

For my disseminate studio brief, I have decided to produce a presentation on the Indie Boss-Rush game, Cuphead, which uses traditional animation style centred around the 1930s.

My initial research consisted of looking at the game on the Studio MDHR website and further research into the way the game was made, through a series of Youtube process videos and information provided by the developers themselves. I was interested in looking at this game because of how popular it became for a 2D Platform genre and how well the studio was able to replicate the style of 1930s animation.

The Studio MDHR FAQ section of their website was most helpful in researching for the presentation

http://studiomdhr.com/faq/

I was able to play the game for a large portion, however I also watched Youtube play-throughs and videos, as I couldn't continue the game because of the difficulty of it. Despite this, I found the animation within the game interesting and almost reflective of the process I used for digital animation, at the beginning of the year. This followed creating a traditional animation and movement, before scanning into Photoshop to colour.

The style used in Cuphead is smooth and exaggerated and I think that's something I'd like to use more in my own work. I additionally liked the line-work of the characters and the colours used to demonstrate character appeal.

For the research and bibliography, I made a Google Docs document, to collect a series of videos and webpages to further explore the games creation.

Context of Practise 1: Essay Writing and Visual Journal

Context of Practise 1

Essay Writing and Visual Journal

After exploring the purpose of creating realism using CG Animation and watching the interview with James Cameron, who explains it is more interesting to use CG than using masks, I decided to explore this with my own character. I designed a creature character in my visual journal, which can both utilise realistic textures and could also be explored in the 2D. 

I created a series of concept designs and then produced a rendered drawing in Photoshop, which I will then explore using stylised styles and how it changes the visuals.

Professional Practise 1: Further Animation Documentaries

Professional Practise 1

Animated Documentaries

To explore more animated documentaries, I decided to use the book, Animation: The Global History by M, Furniss. I was able to find more about more popular studios producing documentaries.

• Out of Inkwell Films Inc. released two science documentaries in 1923, which combined live-action and animation, named The Einstein Theory of Relativity and Evolution. Evolution was a prelude to the "Monkey Trial" in 1925, which addressed teaching Darwin's theory of Evolution in the classroom, breaking state law. 

• Shelia Sofian produced a documentary tackling social issues, at first with animated shorts, such as Survivors (1997), which is a film about domestic violence, made using Conte crayon. 

• Truth has Fallen is her latest work, released in 2013, tells the stories of three people who were wrongly convicted of murders. It is made using paint on glass and was able to complete the film, with a community of artists assisting her and she was able to complete the film through crowd-funding.