Haha, no but seriously, I figured it was about time I shared something other than my pigeon progress. I do draw other stuff in my spare time but have been focusing on those feathered blighters too much to really share it. So I figured why not now.
Although I should explain the little bit of pigeon work I got done today...
Everyone:
I know, I know but this IS primarily a blog to show my college project. SO. Zip plz.
Honestly, not much to say. I get started on the line tests today and figured what would be a better line test than a walk cycle. So I got four frames done, the less frames make the quickest movements, as pigeons heads and feet normally move very fast. However it seems a bit jerky, which is what I was afraid of. I think I'll need to add a couple more frames in to be sure and made the movement that bit more fluid.
... SEE? Was THAT so bad?
I also need to consider entering live briefs, contests and so on so that I can get my work out there, build up my portfolio and basically have something to write or talk about artwise that isn't a project I made up on my own. David encouraged me to design a yeti for the Pictoplasma contest. It was basically how the artist themselves saw the yeti, yet still keeping them friendly. Mine seems to want cuddles. Gives them to him.
I'm still touching him up in Illustrator and Photoshop and I need to talk to Dave about a few things, such as how to resize the pic without effing it up.
Dave was also impressed with a character I've been doodling for the past few days. He's a new one and I'm not certain of his name yet, although I'm considering going with Jerry. He's a Irish Setter/Koala mix. I very much like to blend different species together.
The majority of these are rough sketches. Although I'm sure you don't mind that too much.
But yes, Dave wants me to create a line test of this little guy as well, just for something not pigeon related to put in the ol' portfolio. Fair dos!
This was basically an experiment with traditional colouring, as I haven't done that in so long. Didn't turn out too bad actually! I used crayola coloured pencils and Bic Mark It Markers. And a pencil. And a fineliner pen to lineart.
I also wanted to draw a pic of BF having fun with his photography hobby. He certainly liked wearing Hawaiian shirts when he was younger. Still occasionally does (they're kind of fun to draw).
Anyway, not onto various sketches that will either be coloured or not!
This will get coloured on the computer methinks. Although that said, I might do it traditional, just because I really liked how the above experiment turned out. I suppose I'll have to ponder on that. Anyway, Ruby is basically mock-bitching at BF for trolling her and he's all BF in his BFness. Smug git.
This is quite an interesting pic because it represents Ruby and Ginger's earlier relationship. Long story short, Ruby had trust issues with letting people become close to her so Ginger's openness and keenness to get to know her kind of rattled her. She's also kind of shy whereas Ginger is quite sociable and popular, which peaked her suspicions. They get along like a house on fire now but I think its an interesting stepping stone in terms of developing a friendship.
Might redraw this pic, uncertain about colouring it just yet.
Ahh, now I've had fun drawing these two. Ginger and GG (kind of an inside joke with Brandon, long story XD)'s first meeting. Some dick in the hockey team would knock him down and Ginger would immediately run to help him. While friends with many superficial people, she doesn't have it in herself to be mean to anyone. GG has a tendency to develop a crush on any girl that shows kindness to him. However once he meets Ginger, she becomes his one and only. Haters to the left, yo.
I'll probably colour this one on the computer, background and all.
Here is an earlier pic of them I did when I was stranded in Minneapolis over a month ago. They're co-workers, hence the same shirts XD GG always looks swamped in anything he wears. He was the runt of the litter.
And now its off to bed with Emma. Nighty night, everyone.
As we end another week, I think it will be better if I get my research out of the way now rather than work on it later after the line tests. Its not unusual for me to leave developing my research for last as I can normally zip through all my typing and written work- the drawing requires the most attention I find. That said, I think it will be helpful for me if I have detailed notes that will make me get my written up work done even quicker.
What my research needs to revolve around is contemporary character designs and animations, how both have been done and what they bring to the story. While contemporary means recent and trendy character designs, Dave thinks it will be more helpful to consider the animations that are less well known. Obviously, even though they are more obscure and less known, I suppose Dave means contemporary in the way that most animators have adapted to such a style.
Well, when considering such work, I always turn to the many animations that I saw when I was in Berlin at Pictoplasma (man, I so hope I can go again this year...). A few days ago, we had a small recap on a couple of animations that used simplistic or contemporary character designs that the animator found smiple to animate or people would relate their design to something similar. I think it's best to start there.
BIRDBOY- Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vazquez
I didn't catch much of this animation, was late to the festival for some reason I can't remember. But what I did see, I really liked. The piece itself is subtitled but the emotion was still there. The animation was about the stigma that Birdboy seems to suffer and the little mouse girl that is there for him. I wasn't able to find the full animation anywhere sadly but this trailer is nice enough to show.
Apparently the animation started cheerful and bright until the mouse family caused an explosion that created the dark world shown in the animation. Birdboy is one of the few survivors of said explosion and often suffers stigma due to rumours spread about him.
I like the way the backgrounds and characters are coloured. They look almost like illustrations one might find in a childrens book yet at the same time, there is an eerie, twisted and somewhat depressing tone to it, which defies the conventions used for such a style. That alone interests me.
WISDOM TEETH- Don Hertzfeldt
Now this animation I remember quite vividly. What I think got everyone the most was that there were basically stick figures yet you would still cringe at the sound of the stitches being pulled out for something along the lines of two and a half minutes straight and at the marker drawn blood doing down the figures body, You don't even know these character's names and yet you just can't help but relate to them... kind of.
The animation seems to be done traditionally, using just markers. At least until the hallucination scenes when the stick guy has the baby in his mouth.
I never caught these at Pictoplasma but managed to finally see them a few days ago. I really enjoyed the design of the characters and I loved how the animators brought things like the sun, clouds and moon to life in their work and had them convey emotion and wonder (the cloud crying rain, the moon bringing back the balloon and the sun making the city wake up and make noise when it comes out of its hiding place). All of the animations end in a somewhat humorous and destructive way. I particularly liked the one of the sun, especially when it tries to rebuild the city it had a help in destroying.
I've definitely mentioned this one on my blog before, comparing the two main characters to Spongebob and Patrick. Lets be honest, but those two pairs in a room, it would be F.U.N at first sight. But I digress. I loved this animation. The bright colours, general happiness and the fun of everything really raised a smile from everyone in the room. I could use a smile right now so I'll probably end up watching this once I've finished the blog entry...
Oh and the characters, while looking 2D, were actually done in a 3D way. As I'm avoiding 3D like the plague, this probably isn't the route I would take for my own work. However, this style is very contemporary and enjoyable to watch.
Sadly I wasn't able to find the full animation so this trailer will have to do. I'll hunt for it and link it if I ever find it.
This will definitely be a big inspiration to me in terms of how narration has been used in animation. In this instance, it is used because these characters don't exist in real life and so the absurdity of these character designs (especially the hedgehogs with the inward spikes) add to the humour, especially when they seem to defy logic and go against their will for life. Hence, Doomed.
To justify my own decision to narrate my animation, it is mainly something of a spoof of documentaries like Meerkat Manor (the title I am considering is also a parody- Pigeon Planet) how pigeons can be relatively mundane and seen in everyday life, often as a nuisance. I don't think I've seen a pigeon documentary done before. If I find one, I'll study it and link it to the blog. Its basically mainly to give a documentary about pigeons a, most likely undeserved, sense of elegance and prestige that one would get from the meerkat documentary.
The humour of the c=documentary is my main source of reference here, as I will not be using unusual characters or working in 3D. I do however find the designs enjoyable.
Also, I met the animator in Berlin and he drew me a cubefish. I was so happy... I'll put a pic up later.
THE UNDERWEAR RULE- Punga
Made by those geniuses who did Gluko and Lennon, they were commissioned by the Council of Europe to create an animation about teaching kids not to fall victim to sexual abuse. Considering the subject matter, it is handled in a very light matter, portraying the child as a cute green thing wearing underpants and the pervy adult is represented by the hand. I like how they handled this subject in a way that will get the childs attention and have them listen and adapt the rule to their life and keep them safe.
Again, it has been done in 3D but the simplistic design and indeed the representation of the hand are quite clever. It shows that we don't have to always use a detailed human being to get the point across.
ON MELONCHOLY HILL- Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland
Sung by Gorillaz
This animation I was surprised yet delighted to see. One of my favourite songs and an amazing music video to boot. Wonderful! They seem to combine characters that look traditional to a 3D landscape, which to me would be really difficult to pull off. I find it really wonderful to look at though and I have always really admired how the character designers and animators bring the musicians to life through animation.
LOGORAMA- Ludovic Houplain, Francois Alaux, Herve de Crecy
This one was just such a scream. I thought it was amazing how they took pretty much every logo and mascot in existence (more or less) and applied them into buildings, bikes, cars, characters and at the end planets. It especially tickled me that not only was Ronald McDonald the bad guy but what tripped him over was the huge weightwatchers sign being the cause of Ronald falling into the crack in the road. I smell ironyyyyy!
I don't think I would apply any techniques of this to my work as again it looks 3D which isn't what I want to achieve for my project. However, I had to link this here because... come on. Soooo many puns and so much irony.
I couldn't decide what picture to use for this one so... here's a lot of them.
DADDY'S LITTLE DOLL- Paulo Muppet and Luciana Eguti
I just found this absolutely adorable. However I will admit, this doesn't relate to the project I am doing currently. When I draw, I often try to draw in such old time speghetti limbs. I just find something so fluid and enchanting to them. Its something of a reference to my usual work I suppose.
BEAR UNTITLED- Christen Bach
OK, this one I'm not using as a reference to character design, I've just been looking for it for months and finally found it after seeing it at Pictoplasma. it's just so... absurd. A relationship between a hunter and a bear. That can only raise many many questions.
I liked the 8 bit graphic animation style, I have a fondness for such graphics. And the voices sound like they've used Microsoft Sam or whatever they're calling him these days.
MEERKOVO- Darren Walsh
Compare the Market/Meerkat
... yeah, I'm not using this as reference in any way. I just absolutely adore these meerkats. They're realistic looking (despite the whole clothes wearing thing) and just adorable overall. Like my pigeons! It relates! Simples!
I do have more that I want to share but I think I should probably save them for another blog, otherwise I'll have nothing to write about for another blog entry. I can blather on sometimes.
Next research blog, I'll reference a couple more animations I saw AND mention some more mainstream things that I find inspirational as well. So yeah, look forward to that.
I can totally see Green doing this, fat bugger that he is. Might write it into the script... he's already dragged a half eaten cheeseburger along the ground so why the heck not.
We were given our next module at the start of the week (well, I was given mine yesterday due to not being well and whatnot) which is basically the next step of the production. We have to research simplistic character designs, see what techniques are used that we can apply to our own work and then see if our chosen animation tools and programs will work when we actually get started on our work.
To do this, we will be doing walk cycles of our characters and reaction shots that relate to what is happening in the script. This is so we can find out for a fact if the programs or tools we want to use for the animation will really work in terms of time management and creating an effective final product. Fair enough, we want to be sure that our chosen method will help rather than hinder progress. Personally I'm not too worried as I will be using illustrator and Photoshop to colour and lineart the characters. However, I am debating learning flash and I would also like to learn Adobe After Effects to animate. Jasc Animation Shop 3 can only go so far after all.
As I need to do a walk cycle and all of my characters are pigeons, I will need quite a bit of help and any references I can find. Pigeons have quite a peculiar way of walking, bobbing their heads due to their body shape and how the muscles and bones are connected. Or something, I have no idea ultimately. I should learn as it would probably help. For now however, I have looked at various walk cycles and animations of pigeons on youtube in order to see what other animators have done and how I can use their techniques and apply them to my work.
Will add detailed annotations once I get home.
Unrelated but couldn't resist linking it. Someone should probably make one of these for Pink...
A nice Tweak elevation to complete the collection! I'll print this and the other two out tomorrow and we'll finally have the full set!
Also I went to Rachel's house yesterday (this chick here, seriously, check out her blog http://rachelrutherford360.blogspot.com/) and FINALLY watched two animated movies I've been dying to see for ages- Sinbad (omfg why don't Dreamworks do 2D anymore, their work in that field was AMAZING. Not to mention their 3D has improved tons since Sinbad so why not get to it, eh folks?) and The Legend of the Guardians, which might help me in terms of bird movements. Different kind of bird I know but they did a wonderful job of making the movements and designs realistic. And the animation... ooohhh, momma.
*wipes drool off face* ahem, yeah, I'm pretty much done in terms of elevations and whatnot, unless Dave, Paul or Laura think I should change anything. Next up is research on simplistic character designs. Sounds like... an essay. Eeyaayy.
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.
