Well, as I pretty much updated my blog with all of my progress yesterday, I don't really have anything new to share on that front and it would be pretty redundant to put up the information twice. So instead, I'm going to share some funny animations I found throughout this week.
Lets face it, we all have to just stop doing work and arse about on YouTube sometimes. If we didn't, our brains would sloop out through our ears in a puddle of brain gloop. At least, mine would. And we all need a good laugh every now and then so, being the kind providing person that I am, I will share such treasures with you.
The first two animations and animatic are from MAD TV, which I love and miss dearly. I saw it all the time on Cartoon Network when I was in America and I haven't seen it here. Makes sense really as the pop cultural references are American for the most part but that hasn't stopped us from seeing their stuff before!
Anyway, I just couldn't get over the whole Cowboys and Equestrians idea. Makes just as much sense as Cowboys and Aliens anyway.
The next two are the same sketch, one the animatic and the other the complete animation. I'll upload both because it's interesting seeing the development as well as the finished project. Also, memes. So many memes. I cried with joy.
And finally... this. I have a feeling this is exactly what Princess Celestia does between rising the sun and reading/writing letters from/to Twilight.
As I probably said before a few entries back, I showed my character sheets to Paul and while he approved of the character designs, he didn't like the design of the sheets themselves. To be honest, I didn't like the design of the sheets either, they were basically a lighter colour of the pigeon splattered with pigeon poo.
I decided on some sort of street like design for the background and, as the animation is a documentary, have the info look like notes, hence the look of lined paper. The only pic I changed was Green's, sniping his image from the "Ripe for the Picking" concept art.
I have also included elevations of Lilac and Blue that I have done. I should get ones of Green, Tweak and Pink up soon enough.
EDIT: All elevations and character sheets together! Feels good owning the complete set!
A laptop/computer/mac
Tablet (or a mouse if you prefer working with that)
Sketchbook and pencil (these are optional if you prefer not to sketch on the computer. In which case you will need to scan the images in afterward.)
Photoshop
Illustrator
Food and drink for energy and sustenance. Depending on your workload and work pace, you might be there a while..
Step 1
Open the blank file (I always use an A3 sized file) and begin your basic sketch, using a blandish colour. You can use the opacity tool to change how clear it is later. Don't worry about how messy it can get. I always get scribbly in the first few steps. That can be dealt with later.
Here is the finished sketch. A basic look of what is happening in the scene. However, we need to tidy it up a tad as there's no guideline for the linework I will be doing in illustrator.
Step 2
Now we pick a darker colour to see over the orange I originally used, after changing the opacity to make it lighter. We add a new layer and get drawing. As you can see, I'm actually moving the position of one of the pigeons. I wasn't happy with where it was originally.
Step 3
Now that I'm happy with the lineart and where the pigeons are, I clean it up, add a new layer and lineart the specific pigeons in their respective colours. This is to help me tell the difference (even though I know which character is which but I've been known to derp on stuff like this before) and also to make it easier to separate the Illustrator lineart from the sketch. Black on black is never a good idea when it comes to stuff like this.
Now its illustratin' time!
Step 4
There we are. See how crisp that looks! I basically use the pen/pencil tool (depending on how curvy the line is or how lazy I am) and the lasso tool to select small sections of lineart to make them chunkier. I wasn't able to seperate Lilac's back from her wing so the line on her back is thicker than I would have liked. It doesn't bother me too much as I'm colouring the outer lineart to match the inner colour.
Now to save the file as an AI and then back to Photoshop!
Step 5
To add colour to the lineart, I lock the layer by clicking the square, NOT the lock. Clicking the lock doesn't seem to work for me for some reason, not sure if thats the case with everyone else. Then I choose the colours and use the pencil to colour in (the paint can miss bits due to how soft it is) or the paint can to fill in bigger areas.
Now that the lineart is harder to see, I now have to use a colour separate to theirs in order to make them stand out more and make them easier to colour.
Step 6
This aint too hard. Colourin' time! I always have separate layers for separate parts, such as the eyes, the markings, beak, feathers and so on to avoid certain parts being coloured over. I often colour just along the outline and fill in the colour using the paint can. Lazy but speedy, which I imagine one needs to be in this business.
Here, I coloured under where the eyes and beaks would be as it helps me find them easier. I also got rid of the white around Pink's pupils, preferring to make them tiny instead. Adds more to the blankness I think. I'll leave the wider eyes to Tweak's design.
MAKE SURE THAT THE LIGHT AND DARK FEATHERS ARE ON DIFFERENT LAYERS. AND DEAR GOD MAKE SURE LILAC'S FEATHERS ARE ON A LAYER OF THEIR OWN. THIS IS CRUCIAL.
And voila! Pigeons sans le background! And also sans texture. Time to change that now...
Step 7
The reason the coiloured feathers need their own layer is because of the different filters. The males (and Blue) use Sponge and Lilac uses Rough Pastel. If you have her feathers on the same layer as the other pigeons lighter feathers, she will don the sponge texture as well, which we don't want.
Basically go to filter on the top bar, scroll down to artistic and you will find the two in there.
Hurray! Our pigeons are all colourful and individual and whatnot. But now they are floating in space! We can't have that... time to add a background!
Step 8
I'll be honest, my strengths are with characters and I'm still hmming and hawing over how to do the background. However, I have arsed around with shapes, colour and so on to give a basic impression of a setting. To be honest... I think I like it. I was considering using photographs but this might work too. I'll think deeper on that though obviously.
And finally...
"I'll Plucking KILL you!"
And thats how Emma makes concept art! Or indeed any art. Although it often depends if I'm experimenting with styles and whatnot but thats how I generally make this crap. Hope this actually makes sense!
I still need to share my new and improved character sheets and a few elevations I've got done but until then, I will close with some more concept art I've done over the past few days.
""The Underlying Conflict"
(I'm still working on perspective. I might improve this on one of these days.)
"Well, THIS is awkward..."
(If you don't know whats going on, lets just say Lilac's just found out that Blue isn't the MALE she expected her to be...)
So strange to have our official updates on Fridays now rather than Mondays. I suppose it makes more sense as we get to reflect on the week and discuss what we did but it just seems off to me. Probably cos we haven't done any time plans yet. Or at least I haven't. I should probably do something about that soon.
Anyway, time to share my latest progress. Last time I updated I basically found and shared a boatload of pigeon videos, had tweaked my script ever so slightly and added one new pigeon to the cast. Since then, we've had group critique (which I was one of the few to show up for... no 10% deduction for me!) where we discussed our ideas and presented our progress. However, even though we had less people, there still wasn't enough time to go around everyone in detail so there wasn't a lot of time to really tell the story I was starting to create. I think I managed to give everyone the general gist though.
Dave had no problems with my animation and ideas but did stress that I should show variety with side projects in my portfolio, as I have worked with pigeons before. Shouldn't be too much bother I imagine as I often draw or doodle or even animate things in my spare time, just to give myself a small break from a major project and draw something different. You can never draw only one thing all the time. Drives you buggy.
Like this for example. I actually drew this when I stayed the night in Minneapolis airport because something was wrong with the plane. Thankfully the airport folk were very friendly and helpful. I basically drew something random and nutty to cheer my sad self up. I don't condone kicking your pets though. Seriously, don't do that. It ain't cool, brah.
I'd probably use this as a kind of 'technical difficulties' image if I get my own website one of these days...
Anyway, I suppose I better get on with the task at hand. We're supposed to talk about the character designs that inspired our own but to be honest, I've already discussed that I think. Probably about two or three blog entries back. So instead, I'll talk in more detail about the characters I have and how they've developed since I came back to college.
Blue
Blue has changed in the way that her personality has become slightly more developed and that there's more to her character than trying to help Lilac and Green wake Pink up. Blue is a female pigeon but, compared to Lilac, she is more stocky and built, so is often mistaken for male, which makes it very difficult for her to find a mate. Seems pigeons are more picky where she's from. She is generally confident with herself, likes the fact that her boyish figure makes her less vulnerable to potential dangers from males and finds it easy to stand up for herself and others. However, she hates conflict and is often lonely, which is why she clings to anything relating to friendship. While having a mate isn't exactly a priority to her (food always comes first to a pigeon), it would be nice to have someone to share breadcrumbs with.
She does get the occasional bit of attention from females though, which is how she ends up meeting Lilac. To ease the awkwardness, Lilac offers to introduce Blue to her brother, who also has a similar problem to Blue- misleading figure and plumage. Sadly, Pink is unfortunately numb after losing his limb to a cat, Lilac is riled and Green is fried chicken. Not the best way to meet people.
Pink
Pink is a male pigeon with a girlish figure, due to his half dove heritage, and pink feathers. Because of this, he often feels he has to prove his man(pigeon?)hood by being overly confident, competitive and trying various death defying stunts and dares, often egged on by his friend Green and scorned at by his sister Lilac. He is generally fearless and isn't afraid of getting the occasional injury or two. However, he is rather naive and believes a silver tongue will evade the ruthless claws of an angry cat. He isn't prepared at all for the consequence of losing a foot, which sends him into a state of shock that Lilac and Blue find difficult to waken him from. He is an optimistic and upbeat pigeon that, despite his plumage, finds it incredibly easy to make friends. However, he is positive to a fault, in which he rejects any form of negativity, including vigilance which would help him judge a situation and keep his wits about him. Hopefully he'll be able to snap out of this state soon and stop the chaos between Lilac and Green. Plus, that blue fuzz looks pretty friendly...
Lilac
Lilac is Pink's generous and thoughtful yet no nonsense sister. She is half dove half king pigeon, which explains her expandable body mass. When in a neutral state, her body is slim yet puffed out in the right places. When excited, proud or very very angry, she is puffed out everywhere. And the latter does seem to be quite often.
Lilac often doesn't get to share the calmer extent to her personality as she is always stressed about her brother and that fat green friend of his. The two of them often get into scrapes, Pink's insecurity about his appearance driving him to do every crazy thing known to pigeon and Green constantly egging him on. It all comes to a head when Pink loses his foot and snaps into a semi permanent state of shock, leading Lilac to get her claws out for Green.
Lilac isn't afraid to her her feelings known. She will share when she is happy, apologise when accidentally causing offence and attempt to kill Green any chance she gets. The narrator of the documentary seems to mistake Lilac's actions for courting when she chases after Green. Not too shocking as pigeons do flap their wings and chase each other (although that is often initiated by the male; Lilac seems to like to take matters into her own claws in that case. Although it could be argued that Green DID initiate her actions... ). However, when Lilac actually tackles Green and proceeds to smash his beak repeatedly unto the ground, one does wonder how the narrator continues to believe such a preposterous thing.
Green
Green is the pigeon that everyone would point out to their friend and label 'the fat one', which doesn't cause him much offence provided they provide offerings afterwards. He always enjoys having a laugh and providing entertainment, which is why he takes Pink under his wing and encourages him to go mad with his stunts. This is the main reason for the tension between Lilac and Green. Green believes that Pink's sister is too uptight and controlling and often tells him to defy her, only aggravating her more. He will then coo at her to lighten up and have fun, puffing her up even further. And then when she turns her back on the two for one minute, he tells Pink of the fearsome cat that lurks around the nightclubs and how no one has had the courage to steal a whisker from it and come back alive. You can see where it goes from here.
While he doesn't intend on being a jerk, he can get a bit pigheaded and believe that his way is the right way. He misreads Lilac's care and compassion for her brother as overprotectiveness and stifling their fun, not realising that HE is the reason she is so overprotective. Hopefully he'll have time to mull it over while she's pounding his face into the ground.
Tweak
There isn't a lot known about Tweak. He is the classic stereotypical prophet that runs around, announcing on the impending apocalypse that will doom us all. Or in this case, the army of eagles that will swoop down and pluck off the pigeon population one by one. Which to be fair, is a true story- to lower the population, eagles were set on pigeons. However, it is unknown if Tweak has actually witnessed such a horrific sight through his own eyes or is just completely and utterly paranoid. As far as the other pigeons are concerned, the latter seems the most likely.
Tweak's appearance is very bedraggled to say the least. He moults feathers constantly due to stress, he has a completely bare patch on his neck, he keeps himself thin due to the belief that eagles won't find his skin and bones form worth eating, his pupils are always contracted... long story short, in looks and appearance, he isn't exactly what one would consider sane. He often tries to avoid eagles in any way necessary, hiding in crisp packets and various other articles of litter. His hobbies and intrest including screaming about eagles and screaming to other pigeons about eagles. Also eagles.
So yeah, thats a basic rundown on everybody so far. I'm considering writing up a small detail for the army leader pigeon (potential name Tommy) but he isn't in it very much and his personality isn't much other than a nod to the history of carrier pigeons in the war. I do need to finalise a design for him though so at least you'll see that.
In the meantime, I need to write up a report about some potential careers in the animation industry I might shoot for. So I shall leave you with some concept art I did a few days ago, featuring Green and Tweak. Gee, I wonder what Tweak is yelling about...
"You're ripe for the picking! They'll be coming for you..."
Here was me thinking I need to only find research in terms of character design in ANIMATION. But maybe it would benefit me if I were to look at real life examples of pigeons, considering the body shapes for the most part are realistic?
Durrrhurrhurr.
*ahem* Anyhow, hopefully this will be proof enough that I've been working on my project and not drawing ponies all day. Anymore. Maybe half that. I've basically tried to find clips that mimic what will be happening in some parts of my animation.
This will prove to be most helpful in studying Lilac chasing after and attacking Green. They don't go into a full out war like Lilac is prone to do but the aggressive wing flapping and chasing are perfect for what both pigeons do beforehand.
I think I might need to change Lilac's breed of pigeon to Dove as while studying various pigeon breeds, it seems that the pigeon are too bulky to fit the feminine look I have for her. However, this proves to be a decent reference for Green's body form and walk.
Speaking of Lilac, this is how I see her when she is puffed up in rage to appear intimidating (or whenever she sees Green). I think I might make her half dove, half king.
Just a video of various white king pigeons walking fr general reference. And even a bit of cooing so I can get into practice. I can honestly say I've never seen a king pigeon in my life (which is obvious if I was gonna make Lilac one, derp). They look like pretty hefty buggers.
This is a little closer but now it's too thin to suit Lilac. Regardless, it's a nice specimen and I think I'll ceep it here, in case I create another pigeon, background or otherwise, that would suit this body shape.
Now THIS is closer to Lilac's body form; much slimmer. Not to mention a wonderful example of her temper.
I should probably find some varied examples to base my other pigeons on, Green and Lilac often get all my attention. Not their fault they're so friggin adorable.
This will be a very helpful example for Pink whenever he walks on his footless limb. I needed an example for the movement, mannerisms and the limp.
It would always have been worse for Pink. I mean hey, look at this poor sod. Pretty resilient bugger though, have to give it props for that. I'm now slightly tempted to make a pigeon with one leg. Or even a pigeon with no wings. Now THAT would be evil.
Here are a few walking pigeons. I really want to try and get the general mannerisms down pat. I know that pigeons always bob their heads when they walk, something about their top heaviness and balance I think. So yeah, enjoy some bobbing walking pigeons! I know I will.
BTW, most of these have music in them. Well, we can all have a bit of music in our lives, no?
One last thing I should really look at is definitely a pigeon's mannerisms. Their heads are constantly looking around everywhere, twitching and moving. Even if I exaggerate my character's expressions, I at least want that part to remain true. I should also include a few cooing ones in here, just so I can hear a variety and see which fit which character and which sound closer to certain emotions.
These videos are a great help in studying their tics,twitches and... well customs I suppose.
(The pigeon right at the front seems to be a decent visual reference for Tweak, with his ruffled feathers).
Well, I think thats quite enough serious business for the night. Before I go though, I just HAVE to share THIS video. It's not really for reference although I DO have an army pigeon in the new script and the body shape is just so crazy yet perfect. I'll have to ponder that.
So I'll leave you now with some INTENSE PIGEONS. That look like they've swallowed plates... INTENSELY.
Maybe its cos I've had a drink or two but... am I the only one who found this funny? Not to mention kind of relevant.
Does being a whole new meaning to tweets, really...
I suppose while I'm lingering about here, I should share a few images I did for fun. Because... why the hell not. I don't really get much feedback on deviantArt anymore and at least I know I'm getting marked for this so thats motivation right there! That and I kind of like my blog.
I kind of want to pick up an old project of mine (yep, like I said last post, I love to redo stuff), most likely something I'll have to do in my spare time as it's a comic, not so much anything relating to animation. When I was in my BTEC Media class a few years ago, we were given a module where we could do anything and I chose to do a comic. One revolving around a male character called Teh Mayor (dear God, what was I thinking) and a few characters of mine 'helping' him get votes, i.e, watching him make a general arse out of himself and get beaten up by chavs.
I have already redone the Mayor character, who is now named Mayor Fat Cat-
uh yeah, this guy, who is now a cat rather than some mutated human... like.. thing. The story is more or less the same but I think I'd most likely add more to it once I really get cracking with it.
This is just a concept idea I did, featuring Fat Cat, Ruby, BF and Ginger.
I need to draw more of Ginger, she's actually kind of new to everyone but me. I'll get to that one of these days...
Oh yeah, and there's that Tweaked pigeon I was telling you about! His design might change when I get more ideas but this is basically him for the time being.
So yeah I believe I should wrap this up before I ramble with something uninteresting any further. Or interesting. Not even sure if anyone is really looking at this. Regardless, I should probably sign off now!
Well, I am now back at college and I can honestly say I've missed it (and trust me, as far as education goes, thats something I don't say very often). I've had an eventful summer, mainly revolving around getting to America, spending three months with Brandon, the VERY stressful trip back (ffff), celebrating my 20th, my ongoing search for a job, spending the last remaining days with my best friends who are all going their seperate ways to different universities around the country and... well, yeah, long story short, there's been a lot going on.
But lets get cracking with the academic stuff, shall we?
It is nearing the end of my first week back at college and I have already made a few differences to my project, some major, others not so. The major stuff is mainly the story. We had a discussion as a group about our ideas and offered and were offered ideas to and from people. My idea to redo my pigeon story has been approved, which I was most worried about as I wasn't sure if we had to do something different from previous projects (also, I have a terrible habit of needing to redo something I'm not happy with).
However, the story in general is going to be very different now. Rather than Pink losing his foot being the central focus, I am now adding MORE pigeons and more stories, as the animation will now be a documentary focusing on how pigeons, and possibly other types of birds, live in the city. I intend to keep my four pigeons characters and their personalities pretty much intact but I will also create a few more pigeons for them to interact with. The newest addition is a brown pigeon, currently titled Tweak, who is a self proclaimed prophet warning other birds of the impending apocalypse brought by the eagles (based on a true situation where eagles were set on pigeons to bring down their population), a prophecy which is ignored by everyone else.
It is something of a parody of how people in the city live as well, portrayed by pigeons. But where the comedy mainly comes from is how often the narrator of the animation seems to get the pigeons actions and motives wrong. For example, when Lilac is chasing after Green in order to kick his feathered behind (yes, they still hate each other), the narrator comments on the pigeons mating ritual and considers the female the 'dominant one in the relationship'. It is normal for pigeons to chase each other when courting so it isn't too surprising that the narrator thinks that way, even though the subtitles of the pigeons speech defy what the narrator thinks. I think the main reason why I like this idea so much is because although the narrator is an expert and studies these pigeons, they still get it wrong, which kind of relates to how we assume what animals are doing and how we can miss the point entirely.
Pink is still going to be in a state of shock for most of the animation as he still loses his foot and he is still the poor naive soul caught in tug-o-war between Green and Lilac. Blue is also a part of this, mainly trying to waken up Pink but Blue also has her own individual conflict. Mainly, she is a female yet looks like a male and often has a hard time attracting a male, often catching the eye of females instead. This is how Lilac and Blue end up meeting each other before they end up finding Green and Pink post amputation.
I still want to create a few more characters and I'm working on how I'm going to do the backgrounds but for the most part I know exactly what I am going to do. I need to rewrite the script and do new character sheets for ALL the characters, even the ones I've already done. I showed Paul my character sheet and while he was happy with the character, he wasn't too enamored with the rest of the sheet. To be honest, I wasn't all that much either, as it was mainly a lighter version of the colour of the pigeons splattered in pigeon poo. I have a few ideas of what I can do for backgrounds, mainly taking photos of certain parts of Newcastle or objects that can relate to the individual pigeon (discarded food for Green to refer to his plumpness, discarded crisp packets and newspapers for Tweak as he often hides in them or perhaps feathers as he sheds them due to stress), or making every sheet like a research file on the individual pigeon, with the description being written by the researcher/narrator.
Long story short, I've got a lot to think about revolving around my animation. One more thing I want to add in is my research, which is basically references on the style of characters, background and previous character designs of pigeons that other animators/character designers have done.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Yeah yeah, I know you may or may not have something to say about this. However, you'll notice that I've started to take inspiration from this show into my own work, namely the lineart style, eyecatching colours and... well, damnit, I just love everything about this show in general, especially how they used flash to make the movements so smooth. I'd gush over it but to be honest I think it really needs a blog entry all of its own to really get into the meat of it. I'll get to that one of these days.
But yes, how it relates to this project. The thick lineart used around the wings, and indeed the feather pattern of the pigeons, are based on the pegasus pony wings. The bright unique colours that you wouldn't expect ponies to be (although would maybe expect these ponies to be) catch your attention, another reason why I have made the pigeons different colours. I also like the backgrounds but I don't know if I will devote much time to them when I'm working on the characters, which is one reason why I want to take photos of potential backgrounds. While there aren't many similarities in this project, it is a huge inspiration regardless and will probably continue to be in future projects.
Foamy The Squirrel
Ahh, bit of a contrast here. Like My Little Pony, Foamy was done in flash. The movement is less smooth but that suits the art style and adds to the humour. I mean come on, if you know Foamy, you'd realise smooth movement doesn't suit him. He's a squirrel, those buggers move fast!
However, I've recently taken inspiration from the newer animations in the rebooted version. The characters are cartoon, as is anything moving in the scene such as flickering light, yet the backgrounds are realistic, possibly with a filter, which I'm considering doing for this project.
Angela Anaconda
Again another candidate in terms of background, not so much on character movement. However, as the previous module involving my pigeons used cut out style of animation, I figured I should look at examples I have looked at previously for ideas.
I might possibly make my backgrounds appear a bit more realistic than this as it seems like a collage of objects. That said, I like the simplistic childlike look that it gives the show and it seems really fitting for the story. It's made me think hard about what I want the background to look like for my work in order for it to fit the theme.
Bolt
Now, these pigeons, I believe, have been the most help so far in terms of character design and use of colour. The animators of this movie had the same idea as me in that different colours will make the pigeons stand out from each other. Yes their body shapes and texture of feathers are different but its not something that the audience can really pick out at first glance and without the different colour feathers, the audience will more than likely get confused which is which.
These pigeons were the main inspiration between most of my characters so far, the fat blue one relating to Green, the slim greenish one relating to Blue (yeah, a bit reversed there) and the pink ruffled one relating to Pink in looks and Tweak in ruffled appearance and derped eyes.
Valiant
I think I'll make this my last research example of this entry as this is getting long and I have some other stuff I need to crack on with. This would be an interesting reference for any exaggerated expression that I might use in my work, as these pigeons move closer to humans than pigeons and have very little pigeon mannerisms. It is also something of a reference for any war veteran pigeon characters I might include, in reference to the pigeons who transported messages throughout the war. I'm fairly certain that pigeons wouldn't live that long to be alive today but eh, considering little else in this would make much sense, I think I could be forgiven for it!
Before I go, I should make a basic plan of what I intend to do over the weekend. We've been told that we MUST have research done for monday, so thats a priority. I'd also like to have my new script finished in time to share and possibly have some of the new character sheets done, once I decide how I am going to do them. And I would like to upload more stuff I have done in my spare time; I have a few new things to share.
Well, thats pretty much all there is so far. I'm now gonna look at Animation career ideas and look at the ones that play to my strengths. Tally ho, everyone!
I should probably link this here as I seem to be having trouble saving files to places right now. Damn Macs, always have an adjustment period with these things...
http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/
This will be useful for my project too: http://www.pigeonimpossible.com/blog/?p=181
