Deep Project

This is going to be one of the background character's for the Deep Project, a collaborative film about Perseus running around various film worlds with the head of Medusa in a sports bag being chased by a gang. The world I'm working within is an inverse of the nightclub scene in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' where instead the girl is in live action and the setting is animated.

Long time since I've posted anything but during the two week break I created three portraits of three of the horses from my local stables back home using acrylics. It's a part time business I plan to go into as I find painting portraits such as these a good way to take a break whilst developing my skills with acrylics.



 

 

 

 

Annie

 

Bracken

 

Tally

Crocodile Tears

Practicing drawing the characters for a third year's film, Crocodile Tears. I'm down as the editor for the animation and hopefully one of the character animator's.

Link to film blog: http://blogofdaz.blogspot.co.uk/



Victor

Kathryn

 

Griftie

3 Backgrounds

Here are my final finished backgrounds.

Complementary colour scheme of blue and orange- Perhaps more definition was required for the buildings in the background because at the moment it just looks like a big fire blazing. Although at that distance it would be difficult to make out shapes if everything was alight.  I think the boat could be darker too, to blend in more with the darkness of the water and sky.

 

I had to take into account where the animation would be and although there is space for motion I think there could be lot less of the decking showing. The scene doesn't have many props which is what's making the composition boring to look at.

 

 

Personally I think this was one of my best pieces- the lighting and shadows is as accurate as I could get them. Perhaps another light was needed in the top right as extra illumination for the globe but I did want to have a definite contrast between light and shadow and I feel the black around the outside acts like a frame to draw the eye towards the table.

Animation background

Background 1: Lighting

This is the interior of the pirate ship for my first background. I wanted to work with digital for this one because in the past I've always had to work with paints for A-Level and my Diploma so I haven't had much chance to get a feel for the use of digital paint and seeing as the industry is evolving towards more digital creations I felt I should move in the same direction. It's also a much quicker and less time consuming way of creating backgrounds as I can still paint like I would if I was using watercolour but I have the freedom to remove sections that don't work in the colour palette.

It's not the final background quite yet. At the moment this would be considered more of a concept piece of artwork because the painting is too rough and the outlines aren't defined well enough. If I was to place a character in the scene, he would look out of place. For this I was just trying to work out lighting and where the light from the lantern would reach parts of the room. This is so I can go straight into the final, more accurate, background by following the colour scheme I've already come up with in the concept piece.

Pencil lines- The first rough layout.

Initial colours- The base colours before I work more colour in and rough indication of lighting. I'm going to darken the globe slightly as there's too much glow emanating around the edge.

Concept piece- Final colour palette. As you can see this background is too rough, compared to other backgrounds I've seen. Also I've noticed the chest looks like it's on the same plane as the wall which is giving the appearance that the chest is moulded into the wall.

When I look at this background there is much more definition. There may be no outlines but I can clearly differentiate between the pillars and the back walls. This is the style I need to aim for.

Background inspirations

For the background project I have started looking at layouts and lighting as I start to decide what parts of the Pirate storyboard I want to turn into backgrounds.
Below are the three shot choices I have chosen for backgrounds:

Interior: I think I'll remodel this shot because objects are in the mid and far ground. There isn't anything in the foreground to show depth and much of it is on the same level. This is going to be the first of the painted backgrounds which is required to have a key light source such as a lantern or window and a secondary softer light. Because I have both a lantern and a window in this image, both will be emitting light, but as I envision this scene to be nighttime I could use the window as the softer light source.

 

Exterior: This is the second of the backgrounds but for this it only requires a lined layout sketch. I have to take into account and make reference to aspects such as foliage, buildings and landscape features. As this is set on a ship, references would be of cannons, a ship's wheel and the mast behind the character. It's a good scene to look at due to the perspective required for the mast. Like the first image I may remodel this shot to include a spar (the thick pole that supports the sails of a ship) in the foreground to give greater depth.

 

Exterior 2: The third and final background but for this it must either be monochromatic or use complementary colours or harmonious/analagous colours. This shot, like the second image, is employing perspective on the ship which will be an interesting challenge along with depicting the sea. I'm currently thinking of using just the colour blue for this background, considering it is set at night, however the town in the background won't look like it's burning if I paint the flames blue. So another option is using complementary colours such as blue and orange. This will mean I can still use the idea of depicting night effectively and show heat emanating from the town.

 

Inspirational starting points:

 

Atlantis: Chosen mainly for the old objects as it closely resembles that of a pirate ship. It helps me to understand colour schemes.

Beauty and the Beast: Light source from the torch which I can use to help me create light in my interior scene with the lantern. I can also see where the shadows fall in the room.

101 Dalmatians: Monochromatic inspiration and it helps with lighting but the inking over the top doesn't appeal to me because it looks too messy. I prefer styles that don't have an outline with the only way to distinguish between two objects is the highlights and shadows.

Peter Pan: Ship inspiration but not a lighting scheme I'm interested in because it's below deck and I want the captain's quarters to have a warmer feel to it.

Sword in the Stone: Kind of complementary as it employs a blue/purple with orange/yellow. For my third background the colours would be the other way round with blue being the dominant colour and having the audience's eye drawn to the orange glow in the background.

Sword in the Stone: This is the kind of light scheme I'm opting for. It's warm and has a welcoming feel to it with the secondary light source coming from the window on the right. It's also complementary using blue and orange to depict light and shadow. Very much what I'm looking for in both the first and third backgrounds.

 

Pocahontas: Exactly the inspiration I'm looking for, for the third background and uses the colours I want. The eye is drawn to the fire in the middle making it a focal point, similar to the fire burning in my background.

Peter Pan: Ship inspiration

Peter Pan: Sea inspiration and could be useful as I try to better understand how to do the third background. The sky is red in this one so perhaps I could use orange to reflect the destruction being caused in the town as it illuminates the sky.

Peter Pan: More ship inspiration and understand what colours I need to use for a ship at night.

The Princess and the Frog: Light source from the lantern and the colours emanating from it is what I'm looking for, for the first background.

Peter Pan: Ideas for exterior and ship inspiration. It's not really the colour scheme I'm looking for, for my second background. The colours are too bright and in my second background the character is looking up at a giant wave that is about to destroy the ship so I want to make the colours darker to depict anxiety and fear.

These final two are from Treasure Planet concepts. Chosen for their monochromatic colour scheme and I was interested in how highlights are shown to draw the eye in. From both of these I can see the artist has used white to single out light sources and possible heat sources. More of his work can be found here: Treasure Planet concepts by Michael Spooner

 

 

 

Background styles

Out of the two I chose the first one is definitely not a good style for an animated background. The brush strokes are very rough and there aren't any defining outlines of shapes. It could be a good style for experimental animation where shapes morph into various forms.

Darfield Cornfield

 I used the drawing tablet to create this interpretation. I tried to keep it very rough like the original.

 

Darfield Cornfield

My interpretation

 

The other artist I looked at did the opposite. He focused on detail and I especially liked the one below because the light direction is clear and brightening one spot in the image gives a good focal point.

 

                                                       Frederic Edwin Church- The Iceberg

 

 

My digital interpretation

 

 

Life Drawing

 

Quick poses

 

 

 

10 minute pose- I found I had idealised the human figure by making her figure thinner than she actually was.

 

 

30 minute pose- The perspective is near perfect and I'm pretty happy with this. Drawing people in perspective isn't my strong point so to be able to pull a pose like this off means I'm improving.

 

 

Foliage

The next drawing assignment was to sketch out foliage. I took photographic references as well.

 

Foliage sketches