Well, its been a while...

Indeed it has. And I did warn about my inability to keep things updated blogwise. I apologise nonetheless and I intend to remedy this right now.

We have wrapped up our AD105 projects, complete with sound. I wasn't able to complete all of my animation as most of my time was taken up with trying to understand Cinema 4D, which I now have a much better understanding of. So I just had to animate what I had done and I ended up taking a lot of scenes out and adding newer things in. For example I removed the montage of the footloose pigeon helping footless and instead had a human step on the dismembered foot caught in gum before accidentally dropping a piece of bread. If I had more time, I would have been able to animate Footloose motivating Footless with the bread.

For the most part, everything came out rather well and the sudo 3D seemed pretty apparent to me. I wasn't able to add in a lot of sound, again due to time restrictions but also because certain sound files refused to work, such as background city noise. My sound research needs to be redone as I did not have all the sources needed and the right questions that needed to be answered. Now that I have these things, I will be able to redo them with little problem and hopefully get the 40% mark I need.

Now onto the previous week. We are starting to look into character design and before we break the rules of anatomy, we first have to learn them. We did this with an intense 9:30am-3pm (with breaks) course of life drawing. I had done life modeling previously in High School but this time, we used a male model so that was an experience in itself.

Monday

We started the week by looking at where our drawing skills were- just drawing the model without prior teaching. Immediately, I could tell my skills were limited as I am not very good with realism and that I tend to draw too small on the paper. Dave looked at all our work and, using me as an example, showed the class how to use the pencil measuring trick, where one uses their pencil and thumb to measure the size and width of the subject’s head before sketching it down, and using the measuring length to measure the model’s body, shoulder’s, arms, legs and so on. After I had been taught this, I found it easier to use more of the paper, although my anatomy skills still left much to be desired at this point.

Next we had a disc over the pencil to stop us seeing what we were drawing. This was to stop us from being under-confident in our linework. I found this hard as I am used to being messy with linework and changing things as I go through. I don’t like the idea of just drawing a line without having to change it in some way. I understand that it’s a confidence thing, but I know myself and I am too much of a perfectionist to let myself try to get it right first time.

After this we did our own drawing of the model using pencil that we would show the class later and critique them. Dave pointed out the ‘alien eyes’ that I had given the model (they were dupposed to be realistic, I just didn’t have time to put the pupils in!) and that I tended to give a curvy, almost feminine lines to a character and that I should try being rougher, giving more variety to character designs and could also use them to portray a rough, bitter character. This is advice that I have found useful.

We then worked with inks and paints, which I found rather difficult but very interesting as well. Used white paint to show where the light is on the model. I think I did very well at this, David was impressed at least.

Tuesday

Today we used charcoal and chalk and started the day by drew a shape which we drew the model in before trying to draw him within it. I found this difficult as I would draw him either too big or too small for the shape I had confined him in. We also drew close ups of parts of his body. I did the hands and feet. I tried to experiment with shading using the chalk and charcoal but I always ended up doing it too dark and had to use a rubber on the darker areas. I tried to show off and add a bit of a shine to the model’s watch, which wasn’t easy at all.

At the end of today, we drew very short ten second poses of the model walking, sitting, holding a stick and so on in preparation of capturing movement. As animators, that’s kind of our job.

Wednesday

Today, the lesson was based on movement. We worked with the inks and white paint again and would draw the model in a pose over the top of the previous drawing. It was very interesting and helped me see what parts of the body went where, as I was learning to study the model quickly as I was drawing and was able to memorise the previous pose. We also did work using contrasting colours of crayons to show light and shade. After lunch, like on Monday, we shared the drawings with the class and I saw how other people used bright colours for light and darker ones for shade. The problem with mine was that both of the colours I was given were dark so I don’t think I was able to portray the light and shade as well as the others were.

Thursday

Today was the final day of life drawing and we had been given the task earlier in the week to decide on an artist out of the ones we had previously researched in the module and create a piece of work based on them using the model. I wasn’t very fond of a lot of materials that the majority of the artists had used and I had been told it was OK to use computer art programs (i.e. Photoshop) if I so wished so I had decided to create a piece inspired by Friends With You.

I had initially wanted the model to be lying down so I could draw him with the cross eyes and have a small ghost fly out of him as if he was dead but more people in the class wanted him to be sitting up, so I decided to have him sitting happily on a cloud with the bright background of stars and rainbows.

I started by sketching out a rough sketch of the model in photoshop. I intended for the model’s body to look realistic enough, considering the simplistic look of the style, but with the facial expression which is famous with the artist (pie eyes, smiley mouth). When I was happy with the sketch, I outlined the model in Illustrator using the pencil tool and saved the file before going back into photoshop. I sorted out a colour palette for the model (skin, hair etc) before locking the lineart and colouring it. This is because there is no lineart in this art style and I wanted to make this as close as possible to the original work. I would colour lineart that would mis with the body (such as skin creases, line of the arm and fingers etc) in a darker colour of the skin tone so that they wouldn’t disappear, and then colour the body, hair, eyes and mouth. I even coloured the model’s watch and gave it a face of one of the friends.

After the model was done, it was time to work on the background. I basically copied a background that had been used previously in their work with clouds, star/sparkles and rainbows, using shapes and changing opacity of the clouds to make it look as close to the original as possible. I also added in the friend with the cross eyes as a humorous afterthought.

I had basically finished the piece very quickly out of everyone in the class but it still needs to be printed out and added with the other pieces I have done over the week.

Evaluation

Overall, I found the week very useful and helpful for me as it has given me ideas of how to look at the body, a new way to draw out the human body, ways to look at light and shading and has improved my confidence in drawing slightly. I still like to sketch things out before I get deep into them but that’s just how I operate and isn’t something that’s going to immediately change, if it ever does. I am happy with the progress I did over this week and I believe the skills I have gained will be put to good use as I continue to draw and develop the work I do.

Now we are moving onto our next project, which is creating an E4 ident. We have gone over the brief and looked at idents that have won previous Esting competitions to give us ideas. At this early stage I am unsure of how I am going to go about this so I am going to create a weekly table which will illustrate what I plan to do on what day. This is to keep me on track and also to set me up for future employment as it keeps me prepared and on task, which is a much sought after trait in an employee.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday + Weekend
Research no less than 20 idents and annotate on blog. Also add to word document and add to file. Additional research on idents themselves, how they represent their channels, what factors are considered to go into this.	Write up short summary of project proposal, class discussion and earliest plans. Look into character designs, concept artwork and so on that I find interesting and that might influence my own artwork for this task. Type up ident research if not already complete, discuss if my ideas are compatible or not to the theme of the channel.	Research the channel of E4 in further detail. This is for me to gain a deeper understanding of what the general theme is, what programmes are shown and how I can reflect all of these in my ident. Discuss initial three ideas that I might use for my ident.	Begin storyboard work on three ideas. By now I’m hoping to have picked out a favourite but must remember to not abandon my other ideas just yet.	Begin and complete work on my presentation discussing what I have researched and discovered, what my three main ideas are ad why, my views on how idents are the face of the channel and what my plans are.

To pass my other module, AD101, I need to keep my blog updated on a weekly basis. I am determined
to do this and break my habit of abandoning them! Typing this has actually given me some guidance and helped me plan what I want to do so it can only be helpful!