For this part of the course we were tasked with continuing the exploration of our professional roles in the creative industry, developing from the Professional Practises work done in year 2. My main points from year 2 were that I wanted to specialise in character, environment design and animation simultaneously however while these are my strengths I realised through research that artists I looked up to all had specialisations down to one or two skills, having alot would lead to a ”jack of all trades” making it hard for myself to stand out to potential employers as someone with a focused skillset.
Starting this project I wanted to break down (from ground zero) what I really enjoy within animation and what I want to put myself as moving forward.
Artist inspiration boardMy art moodboard (personal work and University work)
When i started researching artists I look up to at the same time I curated a moodboard of my work, this not only helped me recognise my most identifiable works but it also helped to highlight how I can reach personal goals I have of working as a character designer in the creative industry.
From the artists and Ip’s I chose I’m particularly inspired by the wide range in diversity of shape language, colour and character styles. One of my aim’s is to create work others like me can see themselves in as well as appealable designs which feel organic and fun, I find this important especially today as when crafting works or characters you have to ask yourself questions like: who is this? what do they do? and why? There are always reasons and explanations behind good design, whether it is to appeal to a target demographic, to empower or to just be a funny experience without looking into this while my work looks nice it’ll lack the needed flavour which would really enhance it’s impact!. How I can do this moving forward is to study said artists work, why it is I find it enjoyable and to go further research into videos, blogs ect these artists may have and take onboard what they have as tips regarding their positions, how they developed and how i can grow by learning from them.
While watching these videos (at different points across this project) I noted down multiple tips which I can use to further improve my style and work ethic. Most notably I found a resounding focus on the types of questions you would have when creating a character, the who’s, what’s, where’s and why’s ect. but different from what I had originally thought these artists all developed different voices in how they go about answering said questions not why they answer it. My art had focused alot on answering the why as not only is alot of my work based on original ideas, there would be little traction behind the audience understanding said idea outside of using cliches, trends ect. What I found most helpful was seeing the exploration behind these artists creating these designs. While not groundbreaking, it’s helped me break this view that these artists are hugely better then me, at an unobtainable height, when really they had also started at rocky beginnings. What really helped to push my work forward was to create work as I’m watching these videos, pausing to listen to the feedback and trying again. This has helped refine my output and key reflection skills when creating work such as for the tv series project or for my character design portfolio, an example being the recent changes i made to my portfolio by organising my existing work so they are presented in a better light over creating more. Effectively this has helped to refine my focus and direct my research around character design to what a potential employer would look for but also what would help me stand out against competition.
For my exploration into employment and potential avenues to take after Uni I curated my Linkedin profile, reorganised my cv to include recent work and updated relevant works on my portfolio such as my showreel, and made sure all my contacts/links were secure and updated. Knowing I want to be a character designer (with a generalist role in visual development and environment design) i knew especially with recent events in the creative industry alot of design roles are heavily competitive, i sought out to explore what existing artists in the industry offer and what I can do to better reach my goal.
Through linkedin I was able to discover helpful tips from recruiters and artists alike in the industry on how to network, curate your portfolio and many more. Through Lcc I’ve been able to attend different events such as the recent women in animation, lecture talks by animade or strangebeasts or the ba graduates meet up, it’s been incredibly informative to know first hand through talking with industry professionals, freelancers and students of the work and requirements needed. Using the information I gathered I had been able to reflect on my portfolio and showreel to showcase my strongest work and to also explore why they work so well. Compared to the start of my journey in animation I have been able to effectively enquiry into the type of skills needed professionally to be a character designer but to also develop my exsisting skills to apply to other avenues such as post production editing or compositing.
For my cover letter I focused on creating a versatile draft which feels human to read through and would effectively state why i am reaching out and how I would be a good fit (if i’m applying for a job) I did this by inserting optional guidelines which can be swapped or rewritten given the context. What works well is the straight to the point style of the draft which not only respects the readers time, but does not waffle and over-blow myself. While I haven’t used this draft just yet, a weak point i see is the lack of personality shown throughout, starters like ”hello ___” while respectful would be a commonly used starter, so moving forward i would attempt further drafts to be used in different situations instead of one with multiple choices
Working together with Jay townshend- Sheriff, Billy Fellows, Liam Murray and Cyia Maher we are creating a pitch pack for Jay’s pitch called ”The Escapers” to be presented professionally. The Escapers is about a group of three animals: Pen the penguin, Kanga the kangaroo and Murtle the Turtle, who make attempts to escape the confinements of their zoo enclosure, through chaotic plans and even greater wacky attempts the escapers make daring escapes to break out such as making a hot air balloon out of plastic bags or a catapult out of wooden chairs and tables, or even riding an icecream van to bust out in style.
At the start of the project I was in charge of initial environment concepts aswell as designs for Kanga, this evolved into me being the art director for all characters, environmental artist aswell as a concept artist (eg pages visualising key aspects of character ideas like pen’s hat).
What I especially enjoyed was creating a body of work with a heavy emphasise on character and a comedy centric design. I have a comfort zone in writing/drawing expansive narrative based stories, so to have this opportunity to help create an idea thats focused on the simple fast-paced, looney and downright crazy antics of cartoons allowed me to explore my own personal interest in media such as who framed roger rabbit?, crash bandicoot or even short form humour across the internet which I knew is lacking in my portfolio.
I also found it successful that our team is able to work well together, overall we were able to communicate freely and give helpful feedback where necessary. Aswell as this we were able to learn from the MA screenwriters of what goes into the creation of a tv show at a higher level, while me and Cyia were in charge of the art it was incredibly informative to learn of the pipeline from a writers perspective. I essentially learned firsthand of the process that goes into creating a pitch and the skills needed such as presentation skills (charisma and improv are a huge benefit!) organisation and planning among others.
As the art director what i felt works best overall is the spontaneity shown of the escapers and their methods of escape done by cyia and myself (one of the main selling points of the idea) taking inspiration from looney tunes, animaniacs and older cartoons I feel the designs while simple showcase how effective using exaggerated body movements and expressions can lead to strong and widely appealable designs. Another success i recognise is the strong impact having a team was, when given feedback such as certain character ideas lacking appeal, backgrounds not making sense or logical gaps in the writing we all were able to collectively have input into the idea from both ends, while we mainly focused on the art we were able to explore the impact of creative writing to inform certain reasons why the escapers would escaper and put an emphasise on how. One thing I upon reflection had lacked in was my deligation of work to cyia in the project. notably we were at different points in our fmp project which was running alongside this one, however as I was able to complete work at a fast pace I took on alot more work which become notable once our other team member, Yang, left. Notably throughout the presentation alot of the work visually is my own, and while not bad I should have recognised this much more then i did and pushed even more to encourage cyia to produce more content so we had a fair share of visibilty, though i did speak to them about this i realise having a more organised pipeline and more solid deadlines to talk things over would have been helpful such as finalising a logo design for the hand in.
Overall the tv series project has been an tremendously fun experience, I’ve been able to push my visual style to the max and apply it to a idea that has helped me explore other avenues within tv animation. I have been able to take onboard a professional mindset when working as part of a group, I recognise how my role as an art director has helped lead our small team into fully embracing the chaotic and wild nature these escapers bring, this has been shown through how we put a focus on not only exploring the characters but their methods of escape and breaking the usual limitations of logic such as using plastics bags to make a hot air balloon while realistic unachievable by holding your imagination your able to place your mindset into tge escapers aswell as their audience who would expect wild escapes to unfold each episode without the steam dying down.
In relation to the overall professional portfolio development I’ve found it incredibly insightful to realise my strengths and weaknesses in the eyes of an potential employer. I’ve been able to successfully direct and curate myself on multiple platforms both social media and professional employer networks to keep up to date with recent events in the animation industry, to learn from other artists and recruiters what the fundamentals are to get hired and to fully embrace my goal of being a character designer for tv animation. While I have looked at multiple companies for potential internships or jobs over the summer due to personal circumstance I have started my job search quite late, recognising this I will be using the last few weeks of Uni to fully utilise reaching out to potential companies, studios or attend events to network the best way I can so the transition to leave after the third year is bearable. One problem I was able to overcome was my ability to network in person with people, through attending the lcc based events I’ve been able to discuss with certain people about their roles and tips they would have to get into the industry, as someone who is often shy through the presentations during the tv series project and the fmp project (which was running simultaneously) I have been able to overcome little by little the nervousness i see in myself when doing public speaking. I found the overall experience freeing as I’ve been able to learn tricks i can use to make the act of reaching out to network or to just chat with my peers much easier then what I often feared it to be. Ultimately this experience has been incredibly fun and with the skills developed over this project (both visual and socially) i await future opportunities!
For this project we were first assigned to research into ideas we’d want to explore over the summer, specifically into themes, artists and concepts we’d like to explore for our FMP:
Initial inspiration was from different music videos such as Siames’ The wolf, or art pieces I had been drawn to over the internet. I knew for this project I wanted to break away from just doing things within my comfort zone as a animator so starting from imagery which initially inspires me helps to lead into other pathways further down the line.
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For my first idea i had been inspired by my love and interest for video-games, specifically retro sprite based ones, I felt drawing from a genre that I personally enjoy would help to combat my theme in a unique and memorable way.
Working off the common themes in the games I chose for inspiration such as: street fighter, dragon quest, rayman, megaman ect main words which sprung up were fighter, combat, level, progression and fun among others. Using this I built around the idea of anxiety as a ‘enemy’ that the protagonist we’d follow would have to face in order to progress. To explore this idea further I visited an arcade to get references:
From here I figured that experimenting with sprite based animation would really elavate my animation so I started off with designing a protagonist and a few enemies they would fight:
The enemies where made from quick rough silhouettes I had jotted down, based on the idea of common fears such as insects, reptiles etc. What works best is not only would this link thematically but they would also stand out shape wise as they are distinctly different from each other however as they are just silhouettes the designs feel unfinished and would need redefining to see how they would be integrated.
Using a motif of music as it is one of many ways to help calm yourself whilst feeling anxious I used common visuals such as a rockstar with a guitar or a conductor for initial sketches, with the final idea landing on a magical sorcerer with a musical wand, with a bright colour palette and a slight space aesthetic. This works well as a design, as the bright colours (pink against green) stands out to the viewer along with their expressive emotions. What I would have done differently to improve was to further explore outside of my go to with character designs looking further into my arcade sprite work inspiration and the types of design elements that are usually included there, as overall this design may be hard to accurately design in sprite work as the multiple colours blend too much with eachother for example.
For the first test animation I made a quick pixel brush in procreate and using the drawing assist tool made a fairly rough attempt at a simple sprite inspired animation, this is particularly seen with the linework and limited frame style. Whilst this test is only rough i feel what would have worked better to improve it would have been to test an alternative style similar to lineless or coloured lines to better show the inspiration from sprite based videogames, this is because these games (on the consoles they came out on) had limited colours to work from, which meant creators and developers would have to work within those limits and while i am not making a game to better show the inspiration I could have tried these limitations to see if they work.
For my second initial idea I wanted to work from my moodboard inpsiration, Inspired by the music video for ‘The Wolf’ by Siames aswell as the other artwork inspirations i wanted to experiment with a horror abstract style where not only would I push myself outside of my comfort zone, i would also be able to work on my organisational skills to be able to work within a style i can animate within a reasonable amount of time, this is important to me as my 2nd year film I had a good idea but I wasn’t able to execute it in time for the final deadline. To combat this I worked with a basic limited colour pallete with a emphasis on the visuals and what is animated, cutting out what isn’t needed early on so I don’t fall into similar problems like previously:
What works best about this idea is the vagueness of the character as opposed to what is happening around them, pushing outside of my comfort zone I focused on the visual animations instead of a developed or personalized character design, this helped to explore a visual style around the theme of anxiety such as the rules or laws of the world presented even if it’s a short video test. I would have liked to test out more visuals such as expressing fear through body language based animations like the character screaming in fear or crying, with just focusing on the visuals i limited myself in attempting to physically show the characters emotions however overall I liked the idea off having visuals represent the fear such as the looming eyes surrounding the character.
For my third initial idea i wanted to draw from the idea of the anxiety being represented by a creature which follows the protagonist as a metaphor for living with anxiety daily. With this idea i would explore thematic environmental design using the backgrounds to help illustrate the feelings the protagonist would be feeling such as feeling trapped within a inescapable forest of dense wood. I was inspired by the visually dense artsyle of cartoon saloon’s: WolfWalkers, specifically the highly textured traditional artstyle for the backgrounds i felt this could be great inspiration to draw from especially for how I can encapsulate certain emotions withing the backgrounds along with the characters.
For this working from the silhuoette designs from my video-game idea i came up with a concept for a creature which embodies anxiety and fear. Using key words like suffocating, trapped or sinister I drew inspiration from a foggy-like aesthetic to give the creature a more ghostly look. This works as it captures the many feelings associated with having anxiety and can make for good concepts for how they would interact with the protagonist such as swarming around them as a pack of wolves would or chasing down their prey. I would have liked to have attempted to draw them using other materials such as water colour or perhaps pencils to try a style outside of my go to with digital.
Workshops development:
5 obstructions:
For 5 obstructions we were tasked to in small groups challenge ourselves by coming up with short animations inspired by the rules laid out by the 5 obstructions as limits. Working with a student named Philipa we came up with an initial idea of a creepy/cute style which draws inpsiration from internet horror games or short stories by taking familiar imagery and twisting them to create a sense of fear in the viewer:
We decided with a simple cat animation to draw from the ‘familiar imagery but twisted’ approach as a cat walking would be recognizable as a common thing enough that when twisted it’d lead to interesting results such as for the 2nd prompt Philipa edited the animations i made to have a ‘lights on and off’ look as the cat walks into the shadows.
Animation by Myself, Edited together by Philipa Animation by myself, ai generated voice by myself, Edited and voiced by Philipafull Cat animations seperatelycreepy sound design by Myself, mixture of self acquired sounds as well as free sounds
For this project i particularly liked working within a group and bouncing around ideas for what we could come up with, it felt more organised and what we created together really pushed me outside of my comfort zone. I also found the affects applied to the cat such as the scrambled visuals or the glitchy affect really helped to present a disconnect from reality, especially after it was edited by Philipa after they twisted the dimensions. What I would have improved personally would have been to further push the twisted visuals such as the cat morphing into really disturbing shapes paired with warping the surroundings. After presenting this work we were given feedback that the cat shifting into different plains after they walked out of the shadows was a really intriguing idea and that we could play with the idea of a 3d esk hallway with the cat peering into different doorways, if i was to revisit this i would explore this idea further by experimenting with a parallax camera of sorts as the cat walks into the shadows, perhaps they walk further into the background and vice versa and move close to the camera after a while.
Vignette abstractions
For this workshop we were given the task of coming up with short films which play around with capturing certain emotions or styles we’d want to explore for our FMP. With the idea of my summer projects and anxiety still in mind I created a moodboard around anxiety and how that can be depicted from triggers such as overwhelming situations or fears to imagery that I had found which captures aspects of how I want to play around with the idea:
Using the words and imagery I had come up with i used Procreate to animate, with after affects and premier pro as editing tools to come up with my series of vignettes: (check final showreel, 0.28s in and continues again at 1m. 25s in)
I wanted to work with the glitchy aesthetic again so I included this where possible to suggest a disconnect and a subtle hint towards something being off. What i like most about these tests is the style consistency between each as even though the subjects are different from the wolf walking cycle to the Vhs monster emerging from the tv I felt it was important to experiment with different visuals as to not limit my ideas at first. I also particularly liked the continued use of eye imagery to suggest fear/ anxiety as a big trigger for those experiencing anxiety could be the idea of being constantly watched, which is a big fear of mine too. What I would have done differently would have been to further experiment with after affects, while i learned about masks and the 2.5d aspect using the camera in after affects i didn’t use this and would have liked to explore the wolf walking against a foggy background for example. Other then this i feel it’s a strong sense of direction as I really like the potential with this idea and visual direction for my fmp.
Story worlds:
For this workshop we had to work off our ideas and create short stopmotion tests to explore the worlds we’d be introducing to the audience. Focusing on the creature aspect of my film and then subsequently the type of materials i used to depict them I wanted to play around with how different materials can be used to mimic real life elements such as a plastic bag moved in a way to mimic water: ( Check final showreel, story worlds starts at 0.42s and ends at 1m 23s in)
Initially we were told to cut out images in magazines to help visualize the world we’d be creating for our FMP. I found this really helpful as I was able to really hone into what I’d want to focus on for my film, the feelings and emotions I’d want the audience to feel whilst watching is important as they would be the people who would watch what I would bring out.
What I particularly liked about this workshop was not only working in a medium I had limited experience in but i was also able to experiment with ideas on how to present my world around anxiety, what would be seen, how much would the audience be knowledgeable about ect. these helped me create short ideas for me to test out such as the wolf running through the woods. What I would have liked to explore further would have to be exploring the world I presented and what I want the audience to take away as a result, what message I want them to be left with and why?
“What my ear sees” sound design workshop:
For this project we had to focus on using sound to create the world we’d be animating, using sound recording equipment to gather them.
What i feel works best with this sound design is using items around me and sounds I had heard around me to incorporate into my idea. What I would have liked to develop is using more sounds such as traffic or more artificial sounds like that of the nearby elevator for example, to further explore the glitchy aesthetic more as while I did test a distorted idea around this it is very simple and overall I feel a more heavily dense layered sound could really sell the static chaotic emotional state.
Creative practices:
For this project we had to break down our ideas so far and reinvent them to further develop them moving forward, we received feedback on our ideas as a group and gained insight into how our ideas can be pushed beyond.
Starting off I generated words related to visuals i had come up with so far: cold, isolating, fog, suffocating, unknown ect. with this i made links to the forms of those words such as suffocating and fog being related to air or drowning related to water I wrote down the idea of having a narrative theme of solids, liquids and gases, not only would this aid the scientific aesthetic with the glitchy look but it would help with a thematic theme that evolves as the film progresses. What I would have liked to have done to improve would have been to further explore down the solid,liquid and gases route of thinking in my mind map, where possible i would have liked to explore why i came to this conclusion and what this could mean for my fmp if i explored it further such as the world and environments.
Overall I loved these workshop as I was able to explore ideas outside of my comfort zone, personal feelings related to my project such as how anxiety affects me aswell as visuals which didn’t just rely on my love for a hybrid western and manga influenced style. I was able to push outside of my boundaries to come up with really intriguing routes to take my project, and as a result I will work to incorporate these ideas moving forward.
Below is my final showreel for this project which showcases my tests throughout my project, mainly focusing on my individual work.
FMP Workshops Outcomes Reel
In working towards Element 2 of my FMP I focused into organizing the time I had effectively to be able to create a short film. My biggest aims were to showcase the theme of anxiety through a visual narrative, my use of colour and design as well as showcase my overall aesthetic to put towards my showreel and online presence in the creative industry. To do this I honed into which element 1 outcomes I enjoyed the most and what smaller production ideas had been sprouted out from them, eg the character designs, visual motifs and sound design were ideas I particularly liked so I brought them forward.
Initial character design thought process, used initial colour palette exploration and changed the silhuoette to reflect a shy archetype instead of a strong and confident one. Using long swooping shapes which draw attention away from the character helped bring focus on their low emotion, with them always facing behind suggests a easily scared character who is always looking back so they are always aware.
My thought process when creating Iris was quite simply to create a character that not only is visually in sync with the theme of anxiety but would also be effective to animate. A big part of the animation process is the rendering (cleanup, effects ect) I wanted a simple and solid design which would allow for exaggerated movements and effects to be used but most notably I wanted to also focus on the use of subtle expressions to help showcase the slow build up of anxiety over time. Inspired by artists such as Jackie Droujko, “Meppity”, “Subjectively” and many more i wanted to explore the role my character design is to function as and to actively explore the limitations and progressions when animating her.
artist inspirations
When finalizing Iris’ design (and partially the shadow-creature) I focused on a more conceptual approach, i wanted to explore the dynamic that they would have over developing them separately. To do this I made conceptual pieces highlighting key visual points in the film, one of which being the anxiety catalyst itself. What i had learned from this was while visually appealing i would have to think about approaching this to animate, though procreate has limited animation options it would be limiting in my production to use it compared to toonboom. Though I wanted to use brushes like the light pen for the symbol design shown around the shadow, it would have taken extra time to recreate this effect, similarly to the comic visual of the pop art concept in thinking of my current timeframe of completion I opted to test alternative methods of showcasing the affect anxiety has.
FMP visual effects development
While not all Fx styles were used what i particularly liked was being able to use what I learned in the workshops of element 1 to be incorporated to showcase the overwhelming feeling anxiety can have. Though not everyone experiences anxiety the same, I wanted to show this effect from personal experience so not only would this film have a solid visual style, it would also come from the heart of someone who has experienced the effect anxiety has mentally and physically daily.
What I would have liked to have done differently would have been to further test out using after affects to incorporate 2.5d aspects within my film such as the shadow creature shapeshifting on the envrionment or chasing iris in her mind to add a sense of depth. While not perfect I feel adding this affect would have greatly improved scene transitions and background movements instead of having to add them manually or animate them in the sequence.
One problem I faced was as previously mentioned the visual style of the shadow creature, specifically faced against the visually developed backgrounds and character design, comparitively the shadow looked flat when seen next to Iris in the same scene. How I overcame this was by adding peg transformations and highlights, what i found was by adding a shadow peg affect, altering the radias,alpha channel and intensity the animation itself would have a colourn burned rim but the main animation would look hazy leading to a blotchy/ foggy design so when paired with the straight ahead style used it would blend the frames in a way that looked visually like a shadow would. This not only helped beat the flat almost cartoony look the shadow previously had but also led me to to advantage of toonboom more such as adding highlight layers and shadow layers to the main animation of iris which ended cutting alot of time I would have had to take manually colouring the highlights.
Another problem I faced upon going to a av tech test was my previous backgrounds (specifically at the time) looked washed out or was too dark to see when viewed on the projector:
Concept art ontop of Background design (wip)Finalized Background style
What I did to combat this was take tutors advice to up the contrast of colours so they would stand out more, and to use colours which stray away from black. What helped with this as seen in the finalized style is the background design looks more visually appealing and less muddy, what I had originally overlooked was how the content would be viewed. While the video would be uploaded on social media, in person it would be viewed on screens, projected or similar and would entail their own issues in regards to colours,lighting and would need to be adjusted accordingly. This not only helped to push my visual style to a direction i liked, it would also account for the different ways the content would be viewed making it a enjoyable experience.
Initial storyboard
Animatic development playlist
This playlist showcases the development of my storyboard, while I had originally developed a more expansive narrative with scientific elements I decided to scrap them as to aim for a much more achievable story. The final working idea developed was:
“A young teen named Iris experiences a anxiety attack, physically represented by a wolf-like creature which consumes her mind.
We are taken into her mind as we see her unravel these overwhelming emotions”
What I particularly enjoyed was being able to receive feedback and gain important advice regarding the doability of my proposed storybeats and ideas as well as the overall narrative structure of the story. While my personal circumstances cut into the time needed to develop this story to the next steps more efficiently, i was able to effectively take in the feedback given to me but also other students such as having scenes last longer (in terms of duration) having fade in shots to establish scenes (or re-establish scenes) so the final outcome has a more cinematic feel and helps ground the viewer and so on. I took part in weekly fmp tutorials (mainly with Kelvin Martin) who had given me valuable advice and visual references to look at and be inspired by as well as course tutors throughout when I could.
One problem I faced was the story while being simple, the peak of being in iris’ mind and seeing the visuals take hold throughout the different storyboards was underwhelming or had little lead up. One valuable note was that as the creature was wolf-like, the visuals of the anxiety should incorporate this. To challenge this I animated some scenes to use the visual wolf motif, such as the scene of Iris falling into her mind, and used the motif to suggest an enveloping use of the idea of a shape shifting creature. This was hugely fun to animate as not only did I have to pay close attention to the timing and follow through such as multiple heads being animated at once but I would also have to make sure the scenes leading into one another made sense as well. This helped to not only push my visual style, but in comparison to media that exists (with similar themes) such as SIAMES: The Wolf, it helped to push away from the comparison as while I was inspired by the music video (among other videos and artists) it helped with the longevity of my film so it wouldn’t be taken as a copy.
One thing I hugely enjoyed exploring was using sound design to inform part of the “character design” by this I mean the development of the shadow creature. The ability to warp sounds such as wolves howling and city noises (either recorded by myself or sourced on free sounds with free creative common distribution) was really fun. The outcome of this as shown over the sound tests in the animatics was the development of the world being created, even for a short duration exploring the livelyness of the character being created through sound (accompanied by the animation) as well as the mindscape scenes.
Inspired by old 80’s/90’s films with drones and synth effects I wanted to experiment with creepily texturized sounds, just having a “cityscape” with bits of distortion was not enough for me personally, to develop this I layered the sounds I recorded under different effects in premiere pro such as altering the pitch, adding reverb and flanger/phaser among other changes to get a audible that felt unsettling to hear with the best description being that it sounds crunchy and would stay uncomfortably close to you (listening wise). A challenge I came across was living up to the build up and momentum of the anxiety attack and the after affect, with the interim feedback at the time being that it was abit underwhelming. Given some student feedback and tutor feedback, I experimented with using glass shattering sounds (with synth and drone effects added) played in reverse to suggest the peak moment being built up and literally being shattered as Iris falls to her knees tired. This helped to match the emotional narrative of the story with the audio as previously the main feedback is this was a lacking aspect of the film. I was able to effectively take in feedback and progress efficiently forward to not only create a film (something I struggled with in year 2) but I was also able to challenge myself in aspects of “character design” I didn’t originally intend on.
Overall the process of creating this film while effected by my personal circumstances was hugely gratifying. Comparatively to my second year film “Scarecrow”, I was able to develop my style (animation wise) to reflect what it is I want to do as an animator, I was able to effectively progress and face challenges head on in the development of this film.
Feedback I was able to take onboard (reflected throughout my process and final film) not only helped strengthen my visual (and audible) voice but also encouraged me to challenge myself and to be proactive in seeking feedback and advice. One example being the sound design in connection with the wolf motif, in key points of the film such as the shadow creature being present or the transition to the mindscape, while previously the fx alone (with bright colours refrencing red blue yellow colour channels) was compared to pop art, through seeking out feedback from students and tutors I was able to effectively test short animation styles to be used in the final film (the anxiety sequence in the film for example) which not only strengthened the visual language (helpful as there is no dialogue) but it also matched with the emotional arc being progressed as Iris passes the threshold of her anxiety attack.
Were I could have improved was to follow up with other students who had offered to help finish scenes (such as cleanup or colourists) so the time to finish this film could have been sooner, but also could have meant ideas that were scrapped could have been incoporated. While my personal circumstance meant alot of my planning wouldn’t match up with other peers, I would like to take this forward as a tip moving on if I were to make another short film in the future.
Moving on, with plans after University I will aim to reach out to more animators in the industry to network, with the completion of my film and the visibility to be gained once the graduation film commences I hope I can successfully get a job down the line as a character designer or as shown by my film a animator as part of the pipeline (such as rough,cleanup or storyboard artist, post editing/ motion graphics maybe as well). I will with the last remaining weeks of Uni I will use the facilities to the utmost until i leave, with help in careers as a post graduate I will do my best to have my best chance in getting a job in the creative industry. To sum up, this experience has been informative to what my voice is as not only an animator but a director also, and the creation of the film has exciting shots that i can definitely use in my show reel online. As one of the last projects to hand in i’m both nervous but excited for what my future as an animator holds, and will take things one step at a time!
.”Create a 1–2-minute animated film that promotes you as an auteur, defining your individual style whilst experimenting with techniques and formats that help you develop directions in your work. You should explore themes that have personal value to you. You will consider the relationship between sound and moving image. You can choose to focus on one specific aspect of your research or combine different aspects together but be careful not to overcomplicate things – simple stories with a clear message will work best.”
short brief given. Key ideas: personal project, we set our own story, style and process. short and sweet- max 1/2mins long. must show collaboration with other studies: work on others projects or get people to help with your own.
For my initial ideas I wanted to create a short and simple story which could be told in a simple to understand way, as there is only a minute or so of animation time to work with the story would work best if it could be told simply with just one sentence, no need to over complicate it as that would only add to the time I can make it.
ideas which were sketched down were:
A girl who communicates with the dead ( shes quiet and emotionless whereas the ghost who acompanies her is lively and gets her into trouble by accident)
A slice of life fantasy which focuses on design and character, no specific story persay but it would explore how a imaginative fantasy world could be shown to the audience without words.
a scarecrow who comes alive and causes mischief, instead of scaring the crows it befriends them. instead of protecting the animals and produce it causes chaos.
I decided to go with the scarecrow as not only was it outside of my comfort zone (where I usually draw fantasy and supernatural topics) it also had a more solid storyline to follow and I felt more of a connection with the scarecrow becoming ‘good’ or seeing the error in their ways as a short story.
I started mindmapping what main overarching them i would want to explore with this story. I felt the idea of a inanimate being coming alive would bring alot of questions around life and their purpose: would they stick to what they were built for? would they disagree with what they are doing ect. I wanted to explore this as not only would it help structure the story it would also give the scarecrow a meaningful character arc with them finding their purpose over the course of the animation.
Scarecrows and the Need to Frighten
The familiar cornfield scarecrow has a long and storied history both in Europe and in the New World. 3,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians hung tunics on reeds to scare quail away from crops along the Nile. The ancient Greeks created wooden statues of Priapus,a fertility god, to stand in their fields to frighten birds.
When figuring out their design I wanted to explore the purpose of a scare crow, I came across this article which stated the historical use of scarecrows across the world. With this I wanted to explore the design of the scarecrow, would they look appealing? or be made to look frightening? I used the idea of old worn materials when designing the scarecrow as I would imagine you wouldn’t get brand new clothes for an object which is just there to guard. this helped give character to them as I was able to play around with different proportions to make them look purposefully scary or ugly so the audience would believe the would be good at the job, but also build symphathy for them as their personality shines.
I looked at different references of how scarecrows are designed commercially as well as for daily use on farms, they aren’t designed to be aesthetically pleasing like most but are made with a function to fulfill, which would influence the mindset as well as how they would be made. With this in mind I created the first few sketches of the scarecrow, I used photo’s from my pumpkin carving on halloween as inspiration as it reminded me of autumn which is when this animation would be taking place, it also helped with the functionality of the design where the ‘face’ would have to be easy to carve. Inspired by old english circus’ I opted for large jester like proportions, this helped better convey the type of character this is and helped with giving the clothing design more texture.
to act as a mentor for the scarecrow I created a farmer who would be the main guiding point for both the scarecrow as well as the audience to know what they are supposed to do. Getting general feedback from different classmates for which sketch design to go with and for the colour choices the genral consensus was that the more confident design with a shovel over the shoulder worked best as they had a strong understandable personality.
concept work on how the scarecrow could find their purpose, exploring the world around them enjoying small things like running through a pile of leaves or feeling the sun’s heat.
After storyboarding this first idea and receiving feedback I had to shorten the first few ideas as for only a minute of animation the idea I originally had would have been too long to complete.
https://youtu.be/TLvmgMmkBIY
https://youtu.be/qB-Bw2_Yi1I
For testing out what I wanted my animation to look like I wanted to explore the physicality of the world the audience is introduced. I wanted to showcase personality and texture in my work so both the characters and environments where believable and inviting.
I played around with different textured brushes in procreate and other mediums to get the look of the first two animation tests. visually the animation regarding the scarecrow in the first was closer to what I ended up with compared with the second which background matched my intened vision. I wanted the audience to feel like this was a farm, filled with life.
first animatic test
I got covid hallway through the project which affected me for around 3 weeks cutting into how much time I would have to develop this project. This can be seen more so in the animatic/ storyboard being rough and unfinished in terms of being a finalised animatic. I learnt from here to better schedule my time to incoporate unforeseen outcomes for the future. while I was behind and had to rework my storybaord multiple times I got into designing the backgrounds.
After recieving more feedback I reworked the story to simply be how a scarecrow gains the confidence to scare away crows!
Near completed scene for the final film. finalised look for scarecrow in the film as well as the farmer (not shown in this test). to help differentiate the two personality wise I had the linework for the scarecrow be more gestural and shakey to better reflect the scared and unconfident character they are, it also helped to create texture with their design opposed to clean lines. For the farmer since they are more confident and laidback they had cleaner lines to helped show the difference betweeen the two.
final film with sound
Using creative common sounds I edited together the final film.
What I particularly liked about this project were the free reigns to test out my skills as an animator, While i wasn’t able to fully finsish this work like I had hoped. One thing I did learn was the importance of the pre production side of animation especially considering situations which can come up out of your control, I have learnt to put more focus on the technical and writting side of my story’s so that in the future when I go to make another project I won’t be cutting into time which would be better spent on the animation aspect of the film. I would have also asserted myself to collaborate more with other students specifically to help finish my scenes as I was not able to finish completely.
Over the course of this project I created my own website using Wix. My aims with this was to have a secure and singular place where both my portfolio and showreel were featured, to ease any potential employers or viewers so that everything is in one place and easily navigatable. I wanted to choose colours which reflected my personality as well as the overall design aesthetic I generally have: vibrant, dynamic and exciting! I went with neon pinks and blues as i particularly like the retro neon aesthetic and this is also reflected in my CV.
For my CV i wanted to design esentially a ‘one page’ resume, I wanted to design a page where it would flow to the viewers eye as well as be visually pleasing without taking over the main function of a CV. I particularly like retro vintage aesthetics so I gathered colour palettes and images which would help convey that on my CV:
I chose colours which wouldnt be eye straining to look at but would also still be similar to the style I wanted to go for.
To Develop my online presence I started a youtube channel to upload works in progress’, short animations and finished works. Doing this I hope to develop my online presence professionally outside of my own personal Instagram. To further develop the reach i have with my videos i aim to schedule when I upload and what, so that the content I put out gets seen more and so I can build on my skills in the meantime such as when feedback is given.
My current skill set is a mixture of cartoon and eastern animation, I’m particularly inspired by creating stories and believable characters for myself and sharing this with others. My style is heavily influenced by anime as well as video games shown mostly in the way I portray each character to the viewer.
Where I know my strengths are in the variety of character/environments I design, I pay close attention to shape and colour as I want to showcase different types of people and places as no two are the same. I also find my strengths include my planning and composition skills, I focus on making sure poses or structures don’t feel stiff or unnatural to the viewer.
Moving forward over this project as well as university I would like to develop other areas of work to further strengthen what I can do. One example of this is my development in environmental art and character designs of different styles, so far I have experimented with my usually graphic style aswell as a lineless style but moving forward I would like to try other styles to expand on what I can do such as highly dense and sketchy art styles as i’m usually a perfectionist so it would be outside of my range. As well as this i want to further expand my character animation skills specifically in toon boom so that I get more comfortable animating 2D digitally, as well as traditionally.
Artist inspiration board featuring work from independent artists as well as artists in video games
After creating a moodboard of different types of artists and their work i wanted to examine what it is I particularly enjoy about them to further improve my own skills over the course of this project.
one point which stands out to me is each artists use of colour to enthrall the audience, whether its to put focus on a character and their themes or to entice the viewer into looking at the piece longer. To reach this I will pay closer attention to my choice of colors when I work, focusing on depth and how that can be better portrayed with lighting and colour. Another is the sense of narrative with all of these pieces, both in background and character design an artist should be able to create a believable design to where the audience gets completely taken back by the world they get introduced to, especially in worlds with supernatural or fantasy elements which are harder to visualise with realistic elements. To achieve this in my work I will focus on the smaller details, elements which add a layer of personality to the ‘world’ being introduced or character we get to see, this will help to develop my narrative style in drawing as well as my animation work.
With this project we were tasked with, in teams of 2-3 to create an short 50s animation around the lives of cats and dogs. Given this brief by the horniman museum they asked that:
‘We would like 40-50 second films that respond to ideas around domesticated cats and dogs, their characteristics and behaviour, as well as their relationship to humans to accompany the “Cats and Dogs” exhibition’
Once forming a group we generated a few ideas whilst walking around the exhibits, focusing on cats and dogs we took more of a interest in cats as we all had experiences with cats and felt we could tell an interesting story with a focus on only one over having both.
We brought together different styles and media which portray cats in different ways. Bee and Puppycat, The amazing world of Gumball and Felix the cat in tv animation but also in film the aristocats, The Cat returns. In vidoegames there was animal crossing.
We brainstormed ideas together and brought up the scene from 101 dalmatians, where a few dogs are being taken on a walk and look quiet like their owners. We also had an idea based on how the cats are portrayed in ‘The Cat returns’ with human aspects, walking around on 2 legs, talking ect to explore cats and their lives.
We found the idea of cats looking like their owners and having a visual dynamic would be an interesting route to take so we focused on this when designing them moving forward.
I designed cat’s based on how a child would perceive the different breeds, One idea with this was how a tabby could be perceived as a energetic tiger!
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/flareblitz4/cats/
pinterest board for cat inspiration
For inspiration I looked at different Tv shows I watched as a kid, such as 64 Zoo Lane and the type of materials I would use when drawing such as crayons and felt tip pens, all with bright and vibrant colours. I also collected a variety of cat and kitten photos from pinterest for inspiration on different personalities for the cat designs I come up with.
I focused on exaggerating certain aspects of these designs so they’re more identifiable to a kid and family audience, such as a birman cat having a long neck and body or the rag doll being huge and fluffy.
With willow designing a few cats and their humans the team asked for me to finalise three of my own cat designs to bring forward, we chose these three: the black and white cat, the scared sphinx cat and the small calico cat. This was because we felt they had a distinct personality and would lead to fun actions between the cats and their owners.
I designed a human for the sphinx cat based on the idea of a loving paternal person protecting the scared cat from harm.
I felt the idea of a gentle old lady would work best as there would be a certain charm with an old person and their loved pet.
moodboard for old lady and cat, as well as their home
I then came up with these colour tests for the lady. I wanted to see what would work best with the sphynx cat as we wanted to show a dynamic between the cats and their humans, both in personality and character. To work of the cat’s purple tones I went with shades of green for the lady’s clothing as the colours are harmonic together, further empahsising their connection.
moving forward me and willow were tasked with coming up with backgrounds after choosing humans and their cats to work with, as a group we choose a few from willow’s designs and mine.
The old lady and sphynx cat’s home design, it was inspired by my own experience of visiting a few old neighbors in my childhood. What i remembered most definitely was the air of charm and homey-ness, it felt warm and i remembered the large collections of antiques and vintage style furniture and I wanted to incorporate this in to how I create this enviroment.
After some feedback from our clients we were asked to simplify the story so it was more synced together, they felt having 5 or more humans and their cats for only 50’s would be abit too much and whilst they liked the designs we would need to let a few ideas go so we have more of a better focus. For this as a group we choose a character which willow designed, we named them john for now, and whilst willow came up with the designs for the environments i came i with the redesigns of the cats.
For the redesign of the cats I based it off of willows three kitten designs, how they all had a few characteristics which were individual to them and I wanted to emphasis them.
She redesigned the character of john as one of the bits of feedback we recieved is we didnt have alot of diversity in our designs despite wanting to show this in our animation, we changed this by having ‘john’ be a person of colour instead.
After willow showed a design for john’s home to me I helped finalise a design for this afterwards.
I focused on the colours of each of the designs, more importantly would any be hidden or would any clash if animated in the backgrounds. They also asked for the backgrounds to feel more personalized so I added a lot of photos surrounding john and his cats, small momentous occasions and memories to hold on to which i felt he would frame and hang on his walls.
Brandon and yaw during this worked on story boarding the story and came up with the synopsis. Our first idea was focusing on the mischief the cats would get through daily and how as an owner you have a set responsibility when caring for them.
from this we brandon created a animatic and willow focused on sound design
main feedback from this animatic we got from our client was that the mischief the cats caused felt too large and slowed down the pacing, it also got misunderstood with what was happening and why such as the girlfriend arriving aswell as the antics the cats where going through.
As a result we created another animatic this time focusing on the girlfriend who we named autumn and john, creating a simple premise of autumn arriving for the first time and john gets worried as the cats don’t listen.
main feedback from this was that the ‘mischief’ the cats go through felt more cat-like though with the responsibility of owning a cat it felt the actions were more suitable for kittens so I updated the designs of the cats to reflect this change.
Going from left to right we named the kittens: Cookie, Cream and Custard. In these redesigns i wanted to focus on the kitten’s silhouettes and defined certain features which would help the audience to know their characters from eachother. With other kittens having tufts of fur and others having large whiskers. Whilst this happened Willow designed Autumn:
autumn design’s and turn around by Willow
next we assigned eachother scenes for us to individually animate, i got scenes 5,9,13 and 22-23
some tests i did whilst animating
With these tests I wanted to work on my timing as well as movements and showcasing each character’s personality. Whilst I found it fairly easy to animate the kittens I had more trouble with animating the human characters especially in certain movements like moving towards the camera whilst holding something. To combat this I drew out the movement and resized it closer to the camera each new frame to give the illusion of the character moving forward instead, slightly changing the arms and the placement of the kittens.
I was tasked with, after brandon and willow sorted out the final audio and film pieced together, putting the final audio track and film together aswell as creating the subtitles for the video as a srt. This included timing when the subtitles start an end aswell as creating a transcript for both subtitles and a descriptive text transcript of what happens. Whilst i was tasked with this last minute I was able to create all documents needed so that the animation is accessible to the audience.
As of this power point my main idea developed to focus on the game ‘littlebigplanet’ created by mediamolecule, I want to explore how it fits in with gaming as from what I remember playing of it as a child it doesn’t fit all of the conventions of a mainstream title at the time of its release such as Assassin’s creed or Bioshock and many more.
I want to explore how it formulated, in terms of informed practise I aim to explore the foundation of its creation: the who,what where how and why it got made.
The main influences it had given it’s release (if any) and what style of game it was
Compare it to more recent titles of a similar genre: Minecraft, later installments of littlebigplanet, spore, Dreams?
The overall creation and development of littlebigplanet
What type of game was it? Platformer, puzzle sandbox,
previous games with a Sandbox style?
Games after littlebig planets release which had a sandbox style to it?
spore
minecraft
lit review: how dreams developed over time? what the meaning of dreams came to be? why is it that dreams are style not fully explainable?
With my lit review I hope to look at many of the figureheads of dream studies based on my video essay relating around the meaning of being in a dream. This is because I have been interested in dreams as a side thing and being able to actually research who developed it to where it is today, the main turning points of the study ect would be interesting to help me learn about my own dreams in the process, where I usually have lucid ones.
originally I had the thought of my research question being around one of these subjects in my mind map. I wasn’t too sure on what type of question or what type of argument I’d be highlighting with my essay but I did like the idea on focusing on how animation is usually garnered towards a specific, younger audience and the side affects this brings to creators and their works especially for works towards an older audience as well as in non commercial styled pieces of animation like short clips featured on youtube. This was influenced by the section of my mindmap talking about characters and their stories. I thought this would be interesting to discuss as there are many of my favorite TV shows which have been cancelled due to not fitting the branding or having a negative reception despite being great innovative pieces of work. Such examples include: ‘The Owl House’, ‘Steven Universe’ and many more.
I have since gone back and rethought my idea to talk about dreams and nostalgia. Living or yearning for a past to come back. Reliving faithful fantasies of playing our favourite games or passtimes, usually associated with our childhood experiences. I want to look at the connection between dreams and reality and how we shape our perception of both our dreams and our cognitive thinking on our memories
bringing up past connections, reliving the fun of old tv shows and characters back to a time where there was no worries?
creativity, no limits just ourselves child-like immersiveness the want to create and share with other like minded people
childhood films unlocking past memories from what was thought to be forgotten
warping of our reality through day dreaming or ‘dreaming’. The idea of wishing for something else: ‘The grass is always greener somewhere else’. Why is it that we think of most of our childhood passtimes fondly? playing, chatting, travelling? wide eyed innocence unaware of the responsibilities we’d have later on? carefree no worries?
for this elective we where tasked with creating a believable item/ object to be put into one of three games: ori and the blind forest, zelda or sea of thieves. I chose Zelda specifically the spin off titles of phantom hourglass and spirit tracks, this was because I have the most experiences with these games and their art style not only this but the style for these games are rendered to be fairly simple with the shapes of characters and the designs being simplified for the ds’ capabilities.
to refresh my mind on the game I was basing my item on I decided to play the game abit again
My thoughts was focusing on the items which are already in the game and seeing what would be something I could create in the time I had. I had found the game had a sub focus on collecting treasure and small items and I particularly liked the simple designs for a necklace I had saw.
concept work based on the treasure idea
The idea I had was to make a small treasure you would collect as part of the game. referencing the ‘black pearl necklace’ I generated a few quick ideas for a possible design, researching the designs of different zelda items I realised that many items usually have intricate patterns or imagery usually relating to lore within the game itself, such as the shield having the tri-force as a symbol. playing the game further I had come across the design of a creature that I would like to incorporate some way into this design
fairies in this series of Zelda games have a very simplistic design, this ones role was to recover your health when your where low (but only one time). During this section of the game I came across a dark area which you had to navigate without a map, to create meaning with my item I decided to involve my experience.
The necklace would be used to create a small circle of light around the player meaning it would not only be decorative but would also have a functional purpose within the game strengthening its place as an item with a reason to be made.
Looking into the zelda lore abit further I had gathered that the tri-force (which is a important item within the game) would be made up of three pieces, however they all have names which refer to one piece of it: Courage, power and wisdom. Each of these pieces would also have a colour which would refer to them: courage was green, power was red and wisdom was blue. I decided it would further solidify my design if the item would reference these three colours:
Going forward I decided with my model when I go to texture it I would have at least three models which would showcase each colour.
For this project we are exploring the many layers to life specifically fear and our understanding of things around us. The exploration of creating fear in the audience through art and film.
We had firstly looked into what particularly generates feelings of intense fear and looked at a selection of films, the one which stook out to me was a film called:
What I had particularly liked about this work was the lack of dialogue: no one spoke unless they were reacting in fear. there was (to my knowledge) no instances where the pov we where following had spoken outright which i felt added to the suspense and horror of their scenario. They had no idea where they were, the area they were in was almost like a maze with multiple placements of rooms with little context on what they where for and there was little human interactions, with the small percentage having unknown goals. The other thing I had liked was mainly due to it being a product of its time, there was no colours -only black and white- the whole piece itself felt as though it was shrouded in shadow the environment had an dank and unsetteling feel but also the small inclusions of animation, such as the rats eating away at some food made me squirm in my seat: it was not horrifying but the movements themselves had the intention of creating fear and emphasizing the slow and torturous way of stripping this seemingly innocent man from any hope he would of had to get away. Even when they had gotten away, a mysterious figure had spotted and I would assume taken him (with the man’s wellbeing unknown). It had suspense and whilst I wasn’t jumping back in fear, the concept felt very realistic: like why would you speak in a ominous underground place with seemingly horrible people lurking around the shadows? you wouldn’t you would figure a way out for your life depends on it.
We had also looked at the alternating views and hidden meanings of the well known “The Shining” with the focus being on the review of it called ‘room 237’. The main points which interested me in this documentary was the look of mythology in the film, the link of the myth of the Minotaur and the labyrinth the idea being that the main villain jack being the Minotaur with the setting of the hotel being his twisted labyrinth. Another point brought up with a fair amount of evidence was the look at the colonialism of native Americans and the mass amount of bloodshed. The words which stuck out to me about this was not only the film actually mentioning the hotel being built on a native burial ground but also the imagery on cans aswell as photos throughout the hotel. the reviewer suggesting the placement of these throughout the film implies of the overshadowing anger and pain which is apart of the history.
We were then tasked with creating a scary story in six frames:
I based mine on the common nursery rhyme of crows, with the idea that having seen multiple is a sign of good luck. The rhyme applies to both crows or magpies:
“One for sorrow Two for joy Three for a girl Four for a boy Five for silver Six for gold Seven for a secret, never to be told”
Whilst the main part of the rhyme is known there are various takes on the last leading into crows after seven. The story behind it being that seeing crows on joyous occasions would somehow imply the couples fortune. I re imagined the first half into a horror type of scene, following a boy being followed by crows counting them until he gets to seven: A secret never to be told. My aim for this was to create a subtle hint of insecurity combined with fear, we don’t know what they see in the last seen and we may never know.
short ideas for my interim film I would like to look at the idea of unsettling the viewer, playing with the idea of shaking up the viewers imagination and what they think.
