A bit more concept art.

Concept Art ideas

These are some concept art ideas I tried out digitally using Photoshop and my graphics tablet. One I did just for fun, the other is a horse and person on a tree branch, miniature size. I think the second one I did is much better, probably because I had to remind myself how to use Photoshop for creating artwork for the first one.

 

 

I seem to like the dark and dingy atmospheres at the moment- maybe because it's winter right now.

 

Life Drawing

For this one I began the drawing and then we moved round so we continued with someone else's drawing. So really, this one is about five people's drawings.

Five one minute poses of the model moving around to pick something up and place it on a shelf.

It doesn't look like much of a human but this was a continuous drawing as the model moved slowly around. I didn't look at the paper. Most of it is just lines for legs and arms.

 

Top drawing is a five minute continuous line without looking at the paper. Not bad but looks like a monster out of Doctor Who.

 

This drawing is a ten minute pose. I think I got the perspective on the legs about right.

Storyboard- Pirates!

 

I have finally finished my first long-ish storyboard. When I was creating the storyboard I researched various shot styles such as establishing shots (establish the location) and long, medium and close up shots. What I also found was a much quicker and easier way of creating a storyboard thanks to my wonderful Arrietty DVD from Studio Ghibli. After I had watched the film and went back and watched the alternative angle storyboards, I noticed in some frames they had very little background detail, if any when portraying the story. If it was the same shot, they only put all the detail into the first frame of that shot then in the following frames they just focused on the character movement and

expression.

 

 

 

Look at the right hand page and how the final shot in that sequence contains only Sho (the boy).

 

 

 

 

And again on both pages, detail that is repeated isn't added in following frames.

 

 

So, taking inspiration from this, I did the same with my storyboard.

Love the monkey!

Lifting Weight

New assignment: Make a character lift an object whether it be light or heavy. This involved using the point constraints I practiced last week to join box to hands when Eleven picks it up. After learning about adding lights and colour to objects, I practiced using them in this assignment. I've also used the proper rendering system to make this video. Now I know how rendering feels. You're in for a long wait......

Weight

Here is the final render of showing the weight of an object, with a little twist at the end.

Analysing Weight

This is the second part to the post before where I was practicing Point Constraints and switching between IK and FK modes. With the video below I have been set the task of making Eleven push against a heavy object, this will involve using the IK, FK switch.
This assignment isn't quite finished yet. So far I have animated Eleven sizing up the object and she is just about to attempt to push it. The idea is to switch to IK mode when she pushes against the object so her hands stick in space and won't move whilst the rest of her body is using force.

Point Constraints

After falling out with Maya, we finally re-kindled our friendship and I accomplished the idea of point constraints!
A point constraint causes an object to move to and follow the position of an object, or the average position of several objects. For example this is useful for when a person picks up a pen and puts it down somewhere else.

Below is my practice for using point constraints to connect the sphere to the cube and then the cube releasing it and moving off.

The other technique is switching between FK and IK modes when a person pushes against a static object. IK is inverse kinematics, this keeps joints 'stuck' in space so if you moved the torso the arms or legs would remain glued in their initial positions. Animating in this mode is not ideal because this movement moves in straight lines, similar to a robot. FK is forward kinematics, if I moved the torso the arms and legs would move with it and not be glued in place. Animating in this mode is better because it works on rotations and human movements work in arcs.
In my practice I begin in FK mode then switch to IK mode when I want the hand to remain in place whilst she peers over an invisible wall. It's basic animating, I was more worried about understanding the kinematics than the realisic movement!

Below is my cartoon take. I think it still may need to have work done to it to improve the movement. The jerky movements as the character is flapping his arms I think was a happy accident. In some cartoon takes I have noticed that sometimes the different stages of a take are jerky as the character reacts more and more.

For the drawing assignment I have begun to think about various ideas, at the moment they involve horses and minature people, seeing as my passion revolves around horses.

First initial sketch- Character on the horse's back is to too far down, where the tail is is where the back slopes downwards.

 

 

 

The assignment is based on the works of Heinrich Kley, an artist that used sarcastic wit to create pen and ink drawings of people the size of buildings or metal spoons. Gulliver's Travels is another good inspiration for this assignment.

 

 

 

A more modern take on Gulliver's Travels!

 

New horse. I think there's improvement in the movement.

Spot of recreational work.

So I don't scare anybody, this isn't my horse. It's a rig already created that I downloaded from creativecrash.com.
I just did the animation part so I could start to understand the way muscles move on a horse. I think it was a good challenge, although it needs work. The motion is too slow and to me, it looks like one of the legs is flicking forwards too fast making the action jerky (front right). First attempt: Not bad.

Storyboard editing.

I've started doing the storyboard sequence and already I've found I've needed to dismiss shots because of the camera's location in the scene.

Below is the original pencil sketch I did to depict the ship sailing away from the burning town. Although the shot establishes the town and the fact that the ship has come from it which in turn leads us to suggest it may have been the cause of the fire, we do not get a sense of the ship's power. The camera tilts slightly down over the deck which gives the illusion the ship is vulnerable and small.

 

The shot below is a better portrayal of the ship's grandeur and power in the waters. This is a pirate script and I need to show the unyielding resistance to the law through the weapon they use to create violence (in this case, the Ship). 

Character Designing

Below are character designs for the storyboard task I've been set. I have chosen to interpret a sea captain script so I gathered up reference material and I created a character out of references.
I moved away from the stereotypical captain because I felt it has been repeated too many times. The usual captain with a black beard, wooden leg, parrot and middle aged was too easy. Instead he's a teenager, which is unusual for a pirate ship

Quick life drawing sketches of horses. Some are quick sketches from the film, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Again I just caught a glimpse of a pose of a horse before the picture changed so all of these drawings have come from what I can remember.

 

Colin Morgan from Merlin

Muscle structure of a human- fine liner pen.

Practising what I was taught in life drawing to break the human form down into cylinders. Tried it out on someone walking.

 

At the time I was watching Harry Potter and I wanted to try the technique of drawing by not looking at the page, just at the screen. This is a continuous line drawing and just of Harry but everytime the picture changed I would move on and quickly scribble down the next pose without looking. This is the result. In all honesty it's not bad, I can make out that most of the images are of a person and some torso shots actually look like torso's!

Morphy poses

My 3D assignment was to take Morphy, a model already created in Maya (by a professional!) and put him into poses that suggest an emotion. I could not use the face to emphasise the expression, only the way his body is positioned.
Below are a set of screenshots of Morphy in various positions. Guess what emotions he is suggesting. (At the bottom of the post is the answers, or should I say, my interpretation of his emotions!)

 

 

 I may have altered the position of his eyes for this one. And lowered the eyebrows.

 

 

 

 

 

Answers (or what I think the emotions are) Top to bottom: Transfixed, Courageous (or Heroic), Pleading , Disregarding, Sad.

Life Drawing

More life drawing. This time I had to begin by drawing the figure from a five minute pose down to a minute pose. My main aim each time is to capture the basic structure of the form first and then fill in the detail/shadows. Sometimes when I draw a section I know isn't quite right, I desperately want to dwell on it and correct it but it's all about ignoring what has happened and finish the shape then go back over what is wrong.

Top right to Top left: 5 minute pose, 4 minute pose, 2 minute pose
Bottom right to left: 3 minute pose, minute pose.

 

 



The following was about simplifying the shape down into cylindrical forms, basically drawing a mannequin but making sure I portrayed perpective and proportions correctly. The drawing on the right is in proportion but not in perspective as I'm supposed to be looking up at the figure not head on. When I was drawing, I was in eyeline with his knee so everything above that is looking down on me.

I then experimented using ink and a paintbrush. It's all about using large, expressive brush strokes to achieve a form. I didn't like this media, I've used it before and I think I should have applied it through portraying just the shadows of the form instead of utilising the ink like a pencil.

A 12 minute pose using ink again. The head is out of proportion with the body but I like using the ink to create shadows on the figure.

Two Burts Walking

For this assignment I was already given a model of a character to work from (in this case Burt the robot) and I had to animate a walk cycle (where Burt walks on the spot) and a straight walk (where Burt actually walks). The most important thing I had to remember when doing the straight walk was not to move the foot that remains on the ground whilst the other foot is in the pass position. If I moved it, the foot would look like it was slipping back.
I found this easier to animate than the bouncing ball. It was more time consuming because I kept reviewing the motion and re-doing some sections to make it look right however it was more enjoyable.

Cubey character

For this project I had to animate a Cubey character jumping from one point to another and then reacting to something off screen.
The whole point of this project is to understand about how animation uses anticipation in order to give a believable movement. Over the week I've been watching numerous Looney Tunes cartoons in order to try to understand the way Warner Bros uses anticipation to build up speed before the character takes off.
Below are examples of anticipation. I selected running but a character can be building up anticipation for anything, getting ready to chop a tree down, even preparing to walk or jump.

 

Below is my cubey character.

 

Did a bit more drawing today to add to the sketchbook. One of the tasks is to draw human bodies with animal heads in case you're wondering where the bizarre creatures are coming from.
The others images of people are inspired by the credits from the Sherlock Holmes movie I watched last night. I wanted to have a go at the cross-hatched sketchy style so I experimented on celebrities (namely Matt Smith and Jennifer Lawrence).

Bouncing ball with a personality!

Another new maya video! This time it is a bouncing ball with character, it bounces down stairs and jumps through hoops. I'm pretty happy with this one, although I did discover, after working in just the side view of maya that when I switched to the perspective view the ball was miles away from the stairs. It was safely rescued though and below is the finished video. What have I learnt? Don't just work in the side view, work in all views when using 3D software!

More Life Drawing

Second life drawing class. I didn't really use any new techniques or ones I had learnt at A-level this time round. Instead I practiced adding tone to the body and just getting proportions correct.

 

Warm up exercises (2 minutes each). It looks like a small animation as she rolls to get up.

 

 

 

15 minute pose. With this one I measured out proportions as best I could using a basic stick shape and then building the muscle up from there. I like everything about this picture but the right arm (her right) is too thin and her hand needs to be bigger.

 

 

15 minute pose again. (Please excuse the creases!) This time I used the charcoal to not draw the tone in but rub tone in using the long side of the media. I don't really like this method, I prefer sketching it in and making bold, dark shadows. The feet are not quite right either, the toes of the left foot are too short.

 

 

Despatched

This is my miniature storyboard to show two characters meeting, one moving at a faster pace than the other. It had to be between 7 and 20 frames long but they had to have interesting compositions so if it was to turn into an animation the audience wouldn't get bored with the sequence.
After watching the Waltz of Bashir earlier today, I was influenced to create a story sequence about a war. The sequence is set in World War 1, I studied it at History GCSE and the war is quite personal to me as well because my Great Grandad was a Despatch Rider. I feel these riders don't get the recognition they deserve because they had a very dangerous job, riding over 'No Man's Land' dodging shells, gunfire etc to deliver their messages. It's also where my love for horses comes from. This is in his memory.

Below is photographic reference (and proof that I'm not lying!). This is my Great Grandad in World War 1.