48 Slides Later...

... I'm not even kidding, I'm nearly at 50 slides in my PowerPoint portfolio. Clearly I have a lot to show. Even if I never was able to find the life drawings. Pity. Don't lose those, kids. No matter how much you hate the look of them or think they suck, they can really help you out portfoliowise someday.

But yes, my Northumbria interview is tomorrow and naturally I'm getting prepared. I'm not entirely sure what to expect but from what I can tell by the email, we all get a tour of the campus and have some sort of activity we have to do before we actually get an interview. I'm intrigued to see how this will go. I'm also hoping they don't mind that the majority of my portfolio is on a laptop. I'm printing out contact sheets and taking old sketchbooks to show what I've worked on but the videos and the main meat of the work is in a PowerPoint. They never really specified how it should be presented though. Not like Newcastle which for some reason is very elaborate about what it wants. But that's an entry for another day.

I think the main thing I'm worried about is making sure I find where I'm supposed to be in enough time. I know where Northumbria Uni is, there are just specific places where certain subjects are studied. The website has a map though so I'll just look at that. Wish me luck, guys!

Other news... oh yes, I believe I mentioned the work placement that Dave asked me and a few friends to volunteer for. Well if not, I have more details. Last night, we were all emailed by the person planning the whole thing and from what I can tell, we're volunteering as animation assistants in the Big Draw Festival and Art Club. That's what I'm gathering anyway. Should be interesting.

I'm mainly leaving developing the animation further until after this week because of developing the portfolio and also because we're handing in the animatic and any finished frames in on friday. As I've already done that, I can use the time to work on my portfolio till I present it tomorrow, and then fart out a 'How to' on my work. Sorted.

Not much else to say other than that really. Oh, and I finally bought and played Rayman Origins. I'm ridiculously in love with the game already. The colours, the movement, the exaggeration... It's like I'm controlling a cartoon. It's simply amazing.

... although I do wonder why, even when he gets squashed under moving rocks that Rayman blows up like a balloon before he explodes. I suppose he's just one of them types to defy physics. Lets hope he and Pinkie Pie never meet.

SWOT analysis

This is to help me determine my skills in animation, my strengths and weaknesses and what I need to improve on and keep doing. Also this is a good chance to really look at what projects I have done throughout the past two years.

Projects Completed/Working on

Completed Projects- Still Life, Jax and Jinx, Circle Animatic: Footloose and Footless, E4 ident: Little Red, MTV Idents (flower animation, dragged person in pixellation), Stretch and Scare (Timmy animation and voice)

In Progress- Underdogs webcomic, Crumbs animation, Crumbs webcomic, Not a Drinker (loop), Have a Nice Autumn (Ruby slips)

(NOTE: Not a Drinker and Have a Nice Autumn are improvements or add ons of previous projects)

List of skills

Traditonal, Digital Painting, Storyboarding, Concept art, Character design and development, script writing

Programs

Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Illustrator, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Microsoft Office programs, Audacity, Quicktime

List of traits

Strengths: Confident, practical, good at communication, mostly energetic, set realistic goals, can lead when needed to, creative in both projects and solving problems, accepts responsibility for problems and actions, committed to finish projects, can build relationships with team mates.

Weaknesses: Procrastination, laziness, distractions, time management, sometimes not energetic, making decisions, flexibility, risk taking, needs more experience in managing people, prioritising.

... I couldn't resist. I'm not sorry.

I R SMART

This week I've mainly spent focusing on the portfolio and I believe I'll be working on that for the most part next week as well, at least getting the basic requirements for my Northumbria interview on Wednesday before adding and improving it for the Newcastle interview on the 8th March. I've spoken to Dave and he's gone through said requirements with me. There are a few things I won't be able to include any time soon as Ashleigh's stepdad wasn't able to get the files from the hard drive (again, thanks for your help guys, I appreciate it!) and I have no idea where the life drawings I did from last year are, bar one, but I'm going to be redoing a majority of the things I want to include, mainly the morph and the loop and I'm able to regain the E4 ident from YouTube (which seems to be the only thing from last year that I'm genuinely happy with).

Here's a photo shot from my phone showing the requirements. The rectangle with circles and shapes was for Ashleigh's 3D character and doesn't apply to me. And if you're wondering why there's a question mark next to the 3D in the list, that's because my 3D attempt from last year crashed and burned so hard that Dave is actually discouraging me from including it. Can't say that I blame him. Or that I mind all that much to be honest.

The 6 or 12 section refers to how I should layout my animation on paper to add to my portfolio. So basically capture 6 or 12 frames per pages and be sure to include the basic movement/story, depending on the animation.

I'm taking comfort in the fact that I have the majority of what I need but I'm also apprehensive that what I have won't be varied enough. It would really put my mind at rest if I could find my life drawings, which I hope I do. I've been considering what I should add exactly though, also considering animation work I did before college. Dave seems wary of this idea but I know for a fact that I want to include my 'Still Life' stop motion photography project. It would be a bit of a break from the traditional work at least.

I'll leave a list here including what I absolutely want to include, in no particular order:

1. Redone loop animation of BF drinking and eye spin
2. E4 ident (also include advertising posters)
3. Circle animatic (IF it can be found)
4. Ruby run cycle (maybe add Snaps eating a banana and dropping the skin for Ruby to slip on? Purely to show more of an interesting sequence than just a character running)
5. Still Life stop motion animation
6. 1st version model sheets for Crumbs
7. Life drawings (if I can find them PLEASE GOD LET ME FIND THEM)
8. New and improved model sheets
9. Storyboard/Animatic for Crumbs
10. Any complete scenes, namely the intro at this point
11. MTV idents
12. Underdog concept art
13. Crumbs concept art
14. Any work done in pencil/pens
15. Include various sketchbooks to present.
16. Cocktail Hour posters
17. Caricatures

... Woah, even with the missing stuff I have a lot to show. Have to admit that helps me feel a lot better.

Anyway, now to get to the real point of this entry, the not-so-smart SMART targets.

S- I want to have the improved loop, improved morph and extended Ruby run sequence done to include them in my portfolio. I also need to hunt down my life drawings to take photos of them. I need to obtain the Still Life and E4 ident animations from YouTube and I need to pick out what exact concept pieces from both Crumbs and Underdogs that I'm most happy with and want to include.

M- I'm hoping that I haven't given myself too much of a task to tackle here. My interview is on Wednesday and I believe that if I get cracking as soon as possible, I'll have the requirements I need. The priorities will obviously be getting the ones I can spend the least time on out of the way so screencapping the animations I already have for the layout should be easy. Acquiring the animations I still need to screencap will be next. Then picking out my favourite Crumbs and Underdogs pieces. Finally then working on the redos/improvements of certain pieces to screencap them. First and foremost once I finish this entry I'll have a rootle around the studio for the life drawings.

A- I'm sure this goal will be attainable if I stick to the above plan. I'm hoping that the quicker tasks could get done in two days, maybe even less than one so I can focus on improving the animations before screencapping them.

R- As everything is going in the portfolio, everything is relevant. There's... not much to say other than that. To be honest, I never got this section. It's obviously important to do otherwise I wouldn't be doing it. It's not like I plan when I have my coffee... although maybe I should start doing that.

T- I have until Wednesday to get all of these done as this is the date of my Northumbria interview as stated above. I'll talk to Dave on Monday about what pieces to include and so by Tuesday night I should be well and truly prepared... hopefully.

For the most part I'm confident but I'm also worried about the missing pieces and hoping they won't hold me back. The main reason I'm hoping I find my life drawings is because they give my portfolio that bit more variety that I know they'd be looking for.

Well while I go and look for said still lifes, here are some sketches I've done over the week in sketchbooks to kind of pad it out and hone my drawing whatsits and blah blah blah.

 I wanted to do a sketch of both Lilac and Scarlet puffed up defensively. Lilac just looks adorable to me. 

I can imagine Ginger being nervous around spiders but I think it would be absolutely hilarious if Snaps was. And her various over the top reactions. Ruby doesn't seem quite as impressed however.

Baby Tweak looks quite shocked about something. But what? I'll never tell...

... not yet anyway.

I wanted to kind of blend the two series' that I'm working on together, see how the two art styles contrast. I'll definitely colour this one.

And my odd version of a chibi. I can never draw them right. Oh well. It doesn't look too bad regardless.

"Aww, wee lamb."

Whatever unimportant thing you're doing right now (because compared to this, it's unimportant, damnit *bricked*) stop doing it and watch this. Right now. Right. Now.

An ENTIRELY Scottish cast. Not mostly scottish like How to Train your Dragon (and don't get me wrong, I LOVED HTTYD but... Scottish adults and American kids? Whut?) no, no ... AN ENTIRELY SCOTTISH CAST. A princess that isn't OK with being a princess. Her hair. Her accent. Her hair. Her Dad. her hair. EVERYTHING.

Just stop breathing and marvel at it. Seriously.

This is a big risk for Pixar to take. It totally deviates from their usual formula it seems. I don't mean to go all feminist on everyone here but if you think back, the main character hasn't been a girl in any of their movies so I'm really interested to see how this will go. The only main concern I have is her being some sort of mary sue that does everything perfectly. I mean don't get me wrong, I love the hell out of her so far but I do hope they don't screw this up somehow. However what I've seen so far I've been pleased with and hey, this is Pixar. They haven't disappointed me yet.

*gets off her soapbox now*

... yeah ok, this movie is important to me because of Scottish. BUT COME ON. Even if it wasn't there's so much incredible things that make this a delight to wait for. Just watch the above clip again. And again. And again. As I know you will. AS I KNOW YOU'D BETTER.

*bricked* ... Ow.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to set up a camp to wait outside the cinema to see this movie. See you guys after... uh...

... AUGUST? Oohhhh! *faceplants*

BTW, if anyone can tell me where I can find this poster, I will give you my kidney should you ever need it.

How does it DO that??

Regardless of your opinion towards My Little Pony, this is completely relevant. The person who created this video certainly knows what he's talking about and this'll be a great reference point for walk cycles in the future, certainly on how to make them run smooth.

I'll certainly be looking at this video to help me out more often in the future. I know some of you will be put off because of ponies but seriously check it out at least once. It's certainly helped me.

I know I wasn't the only one who fell in love with the opening walk cycle at the start of the song.

Crumbs Cast Poster. Also More Ponies.

And here we have a poster with all the main pigeons together. This time we have Scarlet, although she's kind of in the background and not one of the main characters at this point.

In totally-not-at-all-related-to-college-work-news, the Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie keyrings I ordered less than a week ago arrived! Before the Ponies I ordered before that... in the same country. While the keyrings came from America. Yet they got here sooner. Go fig.

... not that I'm complaining mind you. God knows I've been wanting these for so long.

... My Little Pony merchandise still falls into animation, damnit.

Crumbs Posters

Just some advertising to try and get back my motivation for working on the frames. I'm quite happy with all of these actually, I think all of them reflect the individual pigeon. I even took the chance to reuse some vectors I'd done before. Some call it laziness, I call it resourcefulness. It totally is laziness though.

As you can see, all of the pigeons have some breadcrumbs with them, mainly tying them to the name of the series. Green had to be a fatass and have an entire slice of bread to himself though. Knowing him, that's not all that surprising.

You won't see one for Scarlet right now though, these are just for the pigeons starring in the animation. I might do one with her at a later date.

I think Tweak's poster might be my favourite. Just... that pigeon is beyond help.

Smile, Smile, Smile

These have to be on my blog. Don't ask me why, just accept it.

Although this one has more of a purpose... maybe. I made a happy little squeak noise thing when I saw this in the episode. Really creative stop motion here... and somewhat suitable for Pinkie.

Pink the Breadwinner

The title won't really make sense until you see the end of the animation. I wanted to use this as a poster but nothing seemed to suit it, no matter how hard I tried. Oh well. Maybe once I start plugging the webcomic or any future animations I'll start using this picture in posters. Hopefully I'll have thought of a better design by then.

And this was just a random set design thingamajigger. It's based of my bedroom a tad (although mine has blue AND red walls, I don't have a Mac and the posters aren't these). This isn't a set design for Ruby's room, I just wanted to do a more complex design for the background and see how it works with the character. I'll probably start considering designs for various sets once I have the time.

Skipping Ginger

I don't think I'll colour this one just yet, I'm not as happy with it as I was with Ruby's cycle. Maybe I'll change my mind later. It was quite a challenge to do, skipping is more complicated than running. At least I found it that way.

On another note, I just watched the new My Little Pony episode. Oh Pinkie, you know how to make me smile, smile, smile.

Run Ruby Run!

I think the colours and lineart work really well in the movement. It was also nice to draw Ruby again. I don't draw her by herself very often these days. I might need to start drawing the characters individually for a while to develop them by themselves a bit more.

I should probably mention that the reason her head isn't moving is because she's focused on something as she's running. It's not me being lazy. Surprisingly.

But yeah, this is one for the showreel.

... Well That Was Quicker Than Expected

I decided to at least attempt to be productive and so I got started on a walk cycle (or run cycle technically) for one of my Underdog characters. I think I'll do one for each of the main four characters, provided I have the time.

Ruby seems to be in quite a hurry. Probably missed the train... again.

I also want to colour the frames for this, mainly to see how my colouring style for these characters will look animated. I'll probably work on that tonight.

... you know, I think this is the first time I've actually really made Ruby move. Huh.

Having an Off Day From Being Epic

I... sadly didn't really meet my targets this week.

I'm my defence (excuses, excuses) I was ill on Wednesday and only really managed to complete the Underdog's image. I have done a Crumbs Valentine image, I did get the opening sequence complete and I've added the human throwing crumbs to the pigeons but I didn't get as far as I wanted to. I think I might need to change a few angles from the animatic, maybe have a close up of the pigeons as they fly down rather than a long shot of them with the human being. I mean, the guy doesn't even do anything after throwing the crumbs so it does seem a bit pointless keeping him in the shot for so long. 

Here's a shot of where I'm up to so far though.

I might need to modify the pigeons a bit as well, they seem a bit small... if I remember correctly, pigeons are normally a bit bigger than portrayed here.

But yeah, long story short, I didn't get what I planned on getting done done and I'm a terrible person.

However, at the very least, I do know what I want to have finished. I have been thinking and as my first interview is drawing nearer, I need to figure out what is going in my portfolio and what isn't. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here yet or not but my external hard drive got damaged and there's a chance I've lost everything on it. Thankfully Ashleigh's stepdad is known for looking into such things. I swear, she saves my ass more often than necessary. But if he's able to retrieve the files and fix the hard drive then everything will be well again and I'll be forever in the Edmonds' debt.

Anyway, on with the plan of this week! I have a lot I need to get done, mainly portfoliowise, which I believe should be the main priority this week. And not buying MLP toys online which I've also been doing (which reminds me, I should have four of them arrive today... and I still need to get one of the recolours... and the Cheerilee and Cutie Mark Crusaders...)

S- It's a bit hard to be specific at this point but I intend to have a clearer idea of what to include in my portfolio. I know I need to include last years projects (if I'm able to retrieve them) and this years for sure but I also want to include projects I've done in my spare time like portraits, Underdog work and Crumb's work (that's not entirely related to the animation). I also want to redo a few things, such as walk cycles and morphs... so I suppose I'll include that as a priority. OK then, specific targets are walk cycle and morph.

M- I intend to have these two things in the portfolio so yeah, they're pretty important. I'm not happy with the one's I have currently and as I want my portfolio to be impressive, I'm taking this opportunity to make them better. They shouldn't take longer than a week.

A- I'm sure it shouldn't take longer than a week to get these done. Then again, here's hoping my motivation and general health doesn't go down the tubes again. I think I need to get my sleeping pattern back in order... a task which is long overdue to be complete, let me tell you.

R- As my interviews are coming up, working on my portfolio is a priority as this is what the interviewers at the places I've applied for will see and so of course I want them to be impressed with what they see.

T- I'll get cracking over the weekend on the walk cycle and morph. Hopefully those will be done by the end of sunday so I can chose various pictures, make a show reel and redo certain images if I so wish. Once those are done, I'll focus back on Crumbs.

Well that seems like a basic enough plan. I'm going to go on Youtube for a while to try and find motivation/inspiration/goof off. In the meantime, here's a .gif of Spike dancing.

Swag.

Underdogs: Overdressed

Not sure if I can count this as a Valentines thing as the day's past and... well, it's not really all that lovey dovey mushy. But oh well, it was fun enough to do. And a chance to draw something besides pigeons for a bit. Not that I'm tired of them or anything, I just like variety in what I draw.

Poor Grayson. He's a sweetie but there's such a thing as trying too hard. Then again, lots of girls like a man in a suit...

Another Valentine's In Progress

Cos I know for a fact you're not sick to death of these already.

I have to admit, considering I haven't drawn them for some time, they're turned out pretty OK so far. The only complaint I have is that I keep drawing Ruby's head really big. I blame that on her muzzle personally. And her big headedness.

Expect further context in the next entry, with complete picture! Yaaaay.

Cos I'm a Lovey Dovey Cake Person

I'm still not done either. I still need to finish my anniversary picture for Brandon and an Underdogs related picture. Cos I haven't drawn them bitches (technically some of them are bitches, it's not a swear!) in quite a while now.

But as for the one I've got done so far. Half of this was cos I wanted to draw one featuring pigeons and another cos I was inspired by the cakes I brought in for my friends today, baked by my good friend, Greggs. I even gave one to Dave. But don't look too deep into that, that was just so I could butter him up to get good mar- ER I MEAN, because he's such an awesome teacher and whatnot. Yes, that's it. *ahem*

Anyway, because I was bored of working on the animation (I'm still battling this thing that's trying to crush my productivity. Still, at least I'm being creative with it) I began sketching a quick doodle of one of the cakes before Blue appeared next to it, holding the heart ring in her beak. The result was adorable and I couldn't help sharing. Happy Valentines/Single's Awareness/Birth/Tuesday!

I'll probably work on more today and upload it later tonight. Aren't you all lucky people. Hurrhurr.

As far as my animation goes, I've finished the title sequence and am onto the next one, which was basically my plan. I'm a bit behind schedule but at the very least I'm on the right track.

Here's the title card. Them pigeons really gotta work on their incontinence issues.

And Here Is Your Nightmare Fuel For the Night

You're welcome.

Weekend, get here faster!

Not that I've had a bad week or anything, just... I need to sleep. Like, a lot. I just can't sleep till 1pm during the week anymore! Well, maybe on Thursdays.

Anyway, here is the obligatory Friday update, basically outlining what I did this week and what I plan to do over the weekend and next week and whatnot. This is what I've done since Monday:

• Was told to consider what to put in a portfolio. I had intended to come into college yesterday to go over it with David but it turns out I wasn't able to due to a driving lesson and other scheduling conflicts. I actually realised this after going home on Monday evening and intended to tell him but I haven't seen him since. Hopefully I'll straighten this out today.
• Designed the new Cocktail Hour poster. And seem to be in demand to be a guest on the show. Naturally this does wonders for my super sensitive ego.
• Started colouring the opening sequence. The backgrounds are finished and Tweak flying, crashing into and sliding down the pole are all coloured, exported and added to the new After Effects file. Now I just need to finish Tweak's freakout sequence. I intend to have this complete for Sunday.
• Developed a new character. Well, I say developed, more developed her design if anything. I need to work on her personality that bit more, flesh it out a little more.
• Inspired someone to create their own character based on Crumbs. Rachel, don't stop being awesome. Now I have to design that character for her series. I wonder if she needs any more birds or cats though... I'll talk about it with her.

Now for the much anticipated weekly SMART targets. With added .gif for extra awesome.

... what? I never said it would relate to anything. Sometimes epic has no connection.

S- Specifically, I want to have the opening sequence completely coloured and added to After Effects by Sunday. After that, I want to continue as much of the animation as I can. As I'm attempting to be specific here, I want to have the animation from the man throwing the breadcrumbs to Pink collapsing in front of Lilac and Blue by next Sunday. (This won't make as much sense if you haven't actually seen the whole animatic. Unfortunately you won't on the blog any time soon. Sorry about that.)

M- I'll definitely manage getting the first sequence done in two days and the second done in a week. It doesn't take too long to colour the characters and as the backgrounds are already complete, I don't need to worry about that. 

A- I don't really see why I couldn't achieve this as for reasons previously stated- the backgrounds are done and characters don't take long to lineart and colour. So it's safe to say these goals are achievable.

R- Working on the animation is my top priority and as both goals have to do with working on said animation, I'd say these goals are pretty relevant to what I have to do.

T- I've given myself two more days to finish the first sequence and a week from Sunday to finish the second. Sounds like I really enjoy repeating myself repeating myself repeating my self repeating myse- *SMACK* I'm an idiot.

Oh, I also need to do a monthly plan or something. Which I meant to do sooner. Sooo... I'll work on that this weekend too.

Before I finished typing this entry (seriously, these smart targets take me so long to figure out), Dave offered me and a few of my friends some work experience with The Big Draw in Darlington, where we'll be the first people to actually do something animation related for the festival. We'll be given some drawings other people have done and inbetween them to morph the objects into one another (at least, that's what I'm understanding so far. That might change once we've spoken to the work placement person). I've been needing some work experience under my belt and it sounds like a fun project so I happily volunteered.

As well as this, we've all just finished a talk about various competitions to enter. All animation based for th emost part but some have sections for illustration which I think I will enter. I've been wanting to find an excuse reason to explore my illustrative skills and what better reason than a competition that will broaden my experience and be another thing to add to my CV? No fails here in my book.

Anyway, I'll look into all this further and leave you all with another pointless but spiffy .gif. 

HOLY HOLE IN A DOUGHNUT

OK, sorry to plug your blog feed with another entry but... you guys... I am beyond touched and happy and just HOLY CRAP WHO GETS FANART BEFORE A SERIES IS EVEN COMPLETE I DON'T EVEN-

*ahem* sorry.

I was looking at blogs of the various wonderful people I watch when I came across my very good friend Rachel's work. To my surprise and sheer delight, her latest entry features a... I know, I can't believe it either, fan character for my Crumbs series. Meet Beige!

Artwork by Rachel Rutherford

http://r-rutherfordanimation.blogspot.com

She's simply adorable! I love the effort in not only designing and developing her character (go to Rachel's blog to learn more about this little sweetie) but also how she's adapted to my style, using drop shadows and textures like I've done. I'm impressed, it looks fantastic. Thank you so much Rachel! I'll definitely be drawing this one at some point.

Lady(bird) in Red

Just a small collection of coloured Scarlet sketches. She's unbelievably fun to draw. I just adore her body shape to no end.

And now she's officially attached to the Crumbs crew. Here's my new Facebook cover picture.

As you can see, she's the tallest.

... yeah, I know Scarlet's barely in the animatic and I'm getting ahead of myself here. I just keep thinking of comic ideas and then start sketching things that have nothing to do with the animation. Bad Emma. Focus.

I blew up a laptop today. Also, a new cast member.

It was messy. Bits of triangle everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I don't envy who had to clean that sucker up.

... it's more believable to think that I blew up an actual laptop rather than create and blow one up in Cinema 4D, isn't it? Can't blame anyone for thinking that really. If it helps, the 'laptop' I designed was more of a two-rectangles-joined-together-craptop. Can't have everything I suppose!

On another note, I've been colouring the opening sequence this week. Its more or less the same as the animatic except Tweak now smushes his head into the pole, slides down it rather than falls off, and his freakout is more animated. Hopefully it'll look good when it's coloured and not much inbetweening will need to be done.

I've included a little something that shows the transition from initial sketch to coloured character. Possibly something to include in the ol' portfolio.

 While I was taking a break from frames, I started sketching out Green as a chick. He looked so adorable that I couldn't resist the urge to draw the rest of the Crumbs crew.

Probably two rather odd things you might have noticed. I'll address them.

1. Tweak looking... normal. No shedding feathers, no bloodshot eyes... just a normal chick. Well, that's because he was, one once upon a time. But that's a story for another day.

2. Who on earth is this red interloper?

I doubt any of you will remember but a few months back, I doodled a breed of pigeon with quite a unique body shape (which I've since discovered are known as Norwich Croppers). While at the time it was a one time joke, I just couldn't get the design out of my mind. I mean, look at this thing! And yes, they're real.

I don't think they can even look down! I know for a fact this one can't!

It seems their chests can shrink and puff up in size luckily, so they're not cursed with a large... ok, part of me wants to make a boob joke but that would be extremely immature of me. But then again, who ever expected different of me.

So it seems they puff out their chests when intimidated or to show off . Which seems to be in every picture in Google images. It took me a while before I even found the above picture.

... where was I going with this again?

Oh yes. I wanted to create a recurring character with this design. So it's with great pleasure that I welcome to the Crumbs cast, Scarlet.

I can't really talk much about her without spoiling a few story ideas I want to explore in the comic. I'll just say that she's Lilac and Pink's older cousin who likes to check in on them every now and then. She's every bit as tough and intimidating as Lilac- where did you think the latter got her intense puffing up skills from? She's a very attractive female that's misled some very unfortunate pigeons before who got the wrong impression of her. Definitely not one to judge instantly!

I'll need to do a character sheet for her. Come to think of it, as the character development and story have changed, I need to redo all of them. Of course, that's not a main priority at the moment.

As for now, Scarlet is merely a background character. She's featured in the animatic being disgusted by Green's eating habits. There's a chance I MIGHT give her a bigger role but this late in production it seems unlikely.

For now, here's one of the sketches coloured. I wanted to play about with effects and whatnot. Just consider this concept art, I suppose.

Anyhow, I better be getting my snooze on. I'll just leave this link I found on Google for future reference: http://pigeon00.tripod.com/history_of_the__holle_cropper.htm

Portfolio Planning and Poster Presenting

Yeesh, there's more Ps in that title than on a public bathroom floor!

... I'm sorry.

Today Dave wanted to talk to me about making up a portfolio for my interviews. Basically I need to think of college projects, personal projects and clips to put in said portfolio in both A3 and in a show reel respectively. I'll need to think about that a bit more. I've got a few things I've worked on out of college that I want to include, such as caricatures, Underdog character developments and so on but I also need to decide what is strong out of my college work. I feel the need to redo a few things. I think the strongest things that could be featured are my E4 e-sting works and what I'm working on now.

My main concern is that I've basically got a full portfolio of character designs, storyboards and portraits but not much else. I think I might experiment with set design and do backgrounds and so on to feature in the portfolio. Obviously I'll discuss this with Dave beforehand.

Moving on, I've finally finished the poster that my friend Ellen wanted me to design for her. As I've mentioned before, Ellen co-hosts a radio show every Monday evening called The Cocktail Hour and as I'd designed a poster for them before, she wanted me to do one again, this time with her, Dave and Scott. I was more than happy to oblige and got right into it, despite the poster not turning out the way I wanted it to. Stubborn thing that it was. But eventually it co-operated with me and here we have the final result.

As you can see, I like rainbows. It contrasts nicely with the simplistic colours in the rest of the poster. And you probably won't get the chicken teapot reference if you haven't heard the show. They're really happy with it and will be using it as their Facebook picture. I think I'm basically their poster designer now. Sweeet.

Quite Satisfied

It's been over a week since the last update and quite a few things have happened, all of them rather spiffy. Lets get right to that, shall we?

1. My cold packed its bags and left, off to infect some other poor soul. Sucks for them but yay for me!

2. I passed my theory test on Tuesday! My first driving lesson in over a year will be this upcoming Tuesday.

3. I've been asked for an interview at both the places I applied for through UCAS- Northumbria University wants to see me on the 29th February and Newcastle College on the 8th March. I need to put a portfolio together for both. If anyone has any advice, please don't be afraid to share it with me!

4. I have completed my animatic (alas without sound) and presented it to Dave, Paul and everyone else yesterday. Overall it went very well and now that the animatic is done, I can hit the ground running with the animation. I've already got plans for marketing: posters to everywhere, clips on this blog and on Facebook, concept art anywhere I can put it... the possibilities! I converted to the Facebook Timeline and the cover pic is pigeons, pigeons, PIGEONS.

Ah yes. Life is good.

Yesterday, I went to Ashleigh's house after college, having been promised a nice meal and some relaxation goof offing time. But it was a trap. She wanted revenge on me for inflicting the impossible six legged sausage on her (God rest Erik's soul... actually no, sizzle in Hell, you phallic shaped abomination! SIZZLE!).
So she trapped me in her living room, tied me to a chair, threw Vaseline at my face and then covered it in mod rock, blinding me and only leaving my mouth uncovered, which she then used to stuff a pack of frozen sausages in, cackling with laughter as I sat there breathing through my nose.

Obviously I survived, to her disappointment. But hey, she got a really snazzy mask out of it!

... Yeah, obviously I'm talking rot (you could never fit a pack of sausages in there no matter how big anyone says my gob is). The real reason my face was mod rocked was for an interesting side project that Ashleigh is working on, something to do with her character Caelyn. I hear she mod rocked her arms too. Hopefully we find out what she's working on there; I colour myself intigued. And hey, Caelyn must be a nice lookin' fella if he's got my features. El oh el.

Lets see, what else... oh yes, my better half''s birthday was last tuesday and, as he's become quite the fan of Deadmau5, I took the opportunity to make his picture revolve around that somewhat. I also hadn't drawn Ruby and BF for quite a while and therefore decided to combine the two. Here is what came of it.

Ruby didn't seem to realise that Deadmau5 uses a material to be able to see through the mouth. Oops. Ah she means well. And BF appreciates it too. Or he will once he stops laughing at the sight of her crashing into everything with a big mousehead on.

... ooh, I also attempted to do 24 Hour Comic Day this year but sadly I had too much college work to get done on time. Curses, foiled again! I did manage to get three hours done though. Here they be for your amusement.

And finally, here are some stills (well, I'll count them as stills, they're coloured frames of the animatic but they might be redrawn) of Crumbs.Which yes, is now it's official name.

And because I'm super nice, I'll share with you the opening of the animatic. This part has sound and everything (which didn't work on the finished animatic for some reason. Oh well.)

You won't be seeing more of the animatic on the blog I'm afraid. At least not any time soon. Don't want to spoil things for anyone after all.

Now, I really should get to work on that poster I promised Ellen...