We've been working on this brief for a couple of weeks now so I thought I should post and show how far along we are. We're aiming to have four parts of the full video completed for the hand in in 2 weeks time, and so far we have the footage for the first part shot and edited down ready for some composition work, and the set and models for scene 2 built in Cinema 4D and ready to animate.
I'll post a few pictures below of what the finished animation will look like, and a couple of short test rigs of some of the simpler 2.5D models. As you can see we're drawing a lot of influence from The Adventures of Prince Achmed, but since each scene will have a very different look it should be interesting to watch.
I'm really pleased with the way things are looking so far, and since there's only a couple of scenes to do we should just about finish on time.
Over the next week there's plenty to be done; we need to start tracking all the video footage and comp in the animation, then cut the video down to match the music we will be using. We also need to get animation underway on scene two (the dark woods), but all the art work and models are completed for that so we're ready to roll.
Friday, 23 April 2010
Hi all, it's been a little while since my last post so I thought I'd put some images up from a recent exhibition I took part in as part of the Keep Your Eyes Open magazine launch party. Me and Len put some art up and there was a few bands playing as well.
I screen printed them in the end, white on black paper with 10 editions of each, priced at £15 each and there's still a few available if anyone wants one. The 2nd image is when I was dreaming of grandeur and was considering doing a 6 colour print, but since I only had a week to produce them so that never happened. There's still one more print to do, it's got a whale in it, so keep an eye out for that!
I've been trying to expand my print collection over the last couple of months and have stumbled across a bit of a menagerie of beauties, only problem is I spent all my money on new records. So I thought I would share some stuff so maybe someone can treat me for my birthday on the 27th!
The guys over at Paper Tiger have got some gorgeous new stuff out, but this print by Japanese born Yuta Onoda is my favourite by a mile. It's actually part of a exhibition called 'i am 8-bit' that asks artists to give their own interpretation of the Mario Bros. series of computer games.
I spied this amazingly elaborate screen print by Aaron Horkey over at omgposters.com, a great place for spotting fresh talent and finding new prints before they come out. It's not my usual stuff at all but I think it's the amazing level of detail in it that appeals. It isn't out until the 8th of March so I might have to try and scrape some funds together.
Next up is Stuntkid, aka Jason Levesque, seems like he draws alot of his influence from Tara McPherson, but his work seems to have a bit more of an edge to it. I love his anatomical studies, particularly this one 'ere, although I can't help but wish it was a screen print!
Last, and most certainly not least, is a selection of prints by Dan McCarthy. His work is some of the most inspirational I'm stumbled across in a long time, especially the use of glow-in-the-dark printing inks. His latest work, Night Air, sold out in just 3 hours(!!) so I'm probably gonna hang about for another good glow print, rather than buy a normal one.
(in the light)
(in the dark)
Friday, 19 February 2010
Next on the agenda is Barcelona!! me and Len took a little mini break after the chaos of the group animation and went off to explore somewhere new and had a fantastic time. The weather wasn't great, and we had to do it on the cheap, but I would definitely recommend it if you've never been before. A totally inspiring city.
We spent a lot of our time there touring galleries and other cultural hotspots after we found a "where art thou?" map in a cool little nick knack shop. We found some brilliant local illustrators and designers and even got a invited to an exhibition opening on our last night there.
My definite favourite discovery was Conrad Roset, a local Catalan illustrator. The majority of his work seems to focus on drawing nudes, but his style is absolutely beautiful.
The first picture is of the print I bought from his exhibition for a measly 16 euro! I love a good bargain!
As you can see he also does some pretty sweet character design, I'd love to see some of these guys turned into toys or something.
It's been a LOOOONG time since my last post so there's alot to catch up on. First things first, we completed the group animation project about Zeus so I've got some show and tell on the cards:
It seemed to take forever to pull everything together, especially sorting out the set and props. I'd never realised how much hard work it can be working with other people, each of whom are supposed to be working to their own assignments. Needless to say things were a little hectic on the last few days before hand in, but over all I think I'm pretty pleased with the final animation. It has plenty of pretty noticeable flaws, and every time I watch it through I notice something else we forgot to polish off or add in in the final rush for the finish line, but I think it has its own charm, and for a first full stop motion animation it aint too shabby.
First things first peeps, Merry Christmas to all, hope Santa's brought you some good shizzle presuming you've all been good boys and girls. My macbook is finally back in commission (thanks Mr Claus) after a rather long hiatus thanks to a busted charger and battery so I can finally have another go at doing some digital art work I've been meaning to get to.
Just spent a couple of hours scrounging around various places for some fresh inspiration and thought I would share. Got alot of this stuff from over at Yay!everyday, a brilliant website stuffed full of rather grand bits and pieces, I would definitely recommend you pop over and check it out.
Apologies for the crappy layout of this post btw, I spent about 2 hours trying to clear up the HTML and make the pictures and text do what they're told and this is the closest I got to something vaguely presentable.
Matt Cipov is doing some pretty interesting stuff. I really love his style, especially the bold line work and scratchy finish, gives his illustrations a really doodle-like quality. His website is pretty cool aswell, even if the text is super hard to read.
I'm really loving Jay Horinouchis work, his website describes him as a "bilingual Japanese American" and that mixing of two very different cultures really shows in his painting. I haven't seen anything quite like the level of contrast in styles that his illustration exhibits, the sheer amount of detail in the line work is astounding.
Photography might be a little off topic (what with this being an animation blog and all) but I can't help but adore Lucia Holms (pictured far left) portfolio. She covers a mixture of fashion photography and commissioned work for bands and the like but it's her self portraits that really stand out for me, they feel genuinely warm and are so full of life and colour, with just a little bit of sex appeal thrown in for good measure and a dusting of twee glamour to finish. Some of her work is quite clearly inspired by the always-enjoyable Sam Taylor-Wood, especially her Self Portait Suspended series (sorry, that's the best site I could find). For those unfamiliar with Sam Taylor-Wood I would recommend checking out her Crying Men photographs, one of the series of art that really speaks volumes to me. Steve Buscemi is a personal favourite.
This Swedish animation studio have got some really cool shorts on their website that are worth a look. The video below is from a short series of idents they did for Cartoon Network, this is my favourite by far though. I love the character design and the facial expressions are spot on, but it's the style that really appeals to me, you can tell from this video that their roots lie in claymation and I love the fact that they've kept that very 'real' look and even gone to the trouble of trying to emulate that in the computer generated work they've done. Check out the showreel on the website if you get the chance, there's a super creepy looking dude about 10 seconds in that scares the hell out of me and I just can't work out quite how he's been made, I'm thinking maybe a CG face comped onto live film?? Drop me a comment if you've got any ideas!
Hello, welcome to my blog! I will be using it for the next year or so to document my progress through my 2nd Year on study at Newcastle college on my animation foundation degree. If you're enjoying my work, or if you're not and want to give me some constructive criticism then please do comment!
