Here are some more tests I have done for my poster design
Thursday 13 May 2010
Monday 10 May 2010
Poster idea for "Tomorrow Never Knows"
This is an idea i have been working on today for a poster for my film. Its not the final poster though, its just a test piece.
Tuesday 4 May 2010
And now, the end is near…
So I’ve just completed 3 of 4 projects for my college course which are getting handing in today. I’ve only got a week before I hand in my portfolio module too. Then after that it’s the final show. It’s been a good journey, but I’m pleased to say that my college career has almost run its course. It’ll be hard to let go of the student lifestyle (getting up at 12, doing an hour’s work and going back to bed, ha-ha just joking) but seriously, this is the end of the old and the beginning of the new. More than anything I’m really excited to get myself out there and make some money doing what I love. And I’ve got my film to work on for the 2011 animation festivals, so it looks like I’m going to have plenty to keep me busy. Anyway ill leave you with this (for now)
Thursday 22 April 2010
Mr. Bear in 3D
So i decided to brave it and attempt to create Mr.Bear in 3D. I'm quite pleased with the model, although i still need to texture him. Here he is, you can decide for yourself.
Wednesday 7 April 2010
Good News
Since i changed my plan from creating a finished film for my final show to creating a trailer, it dawned on me that i didn't have a title for the film. But fear not, Ive got just the thing. I'm pleased to announce the film is called "Tomorrow Never Knows".
Theres been a change of plan
Due to the limited amount of time i have left on my degree course, it would not be possible to complete my film to the high standard of which it deserves to be made. So Ive changed my plan slightly and I'm going to make a trailer for my film. Hopefully you will be intrigued enough to want to see the finished film when its done, and keep updated with all the latest news on the film.
Friday 12 March 2010
New Illustration :)
Ive took a little bit of time out today from my college work to do some personal work. I love doing this sort of stuff. I created this illustration using illustrator and Photoshop.
Thursday 11 March 2010
The happy couple
Ive just finished creating a photo of Mr & Mrs bear in a photo frame. This will be going on the wall in the Bear's house.
Wednesday 10 March 2010
Ok, so my blog’s been a bit wordy so far
But that’s about to change. Meet the characters of my animated film. Introducing Mr and Mrs Bear.
What I’m working on…
As I’ve said in my info, I’m currently studying on a degree course. My course requires me to create a piece of work of my own choice. So, I wrote my own brief based around the theme of 1960’s psychedelia. I love everything about this era, the art, music, fashion and the lifestyle. One of the biggest influences on me from the 60’s has to be the Beatles. There music is beyond anything else I’ve ever heard, the first time I heard a Beatles song I knew it was something special. So that’s the overall theme of my project.
As I am fundamentally an animator, I am creating a short animated film using “60’s psychedelia” as the main theme. My film revolves around a character currently named “Mr. Bear”. He’s happily married to Mrs. Bear but discovers some addictive confectionary called “Trippy Whips©”. Mr. Bear becomes so addicted to the “trippy whips©” that Mrs. Bear decides she can’t take any more and leaves. Mr. Bears mind has been warped by the confectionary and he is now living inside his own mind. Mr. Bear has no idea that his wife has left him, and enjoys some time in his own world. It’s not until the effects of the “Trippy Whips©” gradually begin to wear off that signs of reality start to seep into his world. The big incline that reminds him that Mrs. Bear has gone is when he sees a Mermaid that looks like his wife. At this point everything fits into place for Mr. Bear and he realises that he’s being wasting his life away. So as if my magic, or maybe something else, were transported back the beginning of the story. This time Mr. Bear is watching the TV when Mrs. Bear walks in and sits down beside him. Suddenly an advert appears on the TV advertising “Trippy Whips©”. The two bears look at each other, smile and turn off the TV. So was it all a dream? Was it a vision? I’ll let you be the judge of that yourselves when the film is finished.
As I am fundamentally an animator, I am creating a short animated film using “60’s psychedelia” as the main theme. My film revolves around a character currently named “Mr. Bear”. He’s happily married to Mrs. Bear but discovers some addictive confectionary called “Trippy Whips©”. Mr. Bear becomes so addicted to the “trippy whips©” that Mrs. Bear decides she can’t take any more and leaves. Mr. Bears mind has been warped by the confectionary and he is now living inside his own mind. Mr. Bear has no idea that his wife has left him, and enjoys some time in his own world. It’s not until the effects of the “Trippy Whips©” gradually begin to wear off that signs of reality start to seep into his world. The big incline that reminds him that Mrs. Bear has gone is when he sees a Mermaid that looks like his wife. At this point everything fits into place for Mr. Bear and he realises that he’s being wasting his life away. So as if my magic, or maybe something else, were transported back the beginning of the story. This time Mr. Bear is watching the TV when Mrs. Bear walks in and sits down beside him. Suddenly an advert appears on the TV advertising “Trippy Whips©”. The two bears look at each other, smile and turn off the TV. So was it all a dream? Was it a vision? I’ll let you be the judge of that yourselves when the film is finished.
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Stoke your fires - Day 2 of the festival (Marc Silk & Christian De Vita)
The second talk of the festival on day 2 was by Marc Silk, who is a voice actor. I didn’t exactly learn anything from this talk, apart from the benefits of using a professional voice actor, but the whole talk overall was very funny and entertaining.
The last talk of the day, and one of my favourites of the whole festival was by Christian De Vita, a storyboard artist who worked on fantastic Mr. Fox. I seen Fantastic Mr. Fox a couple of months before and really enjoyed the film. Christian talked through the full process of drawing out storyboards. He talked about how closely you work with the director, because working as a story board artist is really putting down the director’s vision onto paper. And judging by what Christian said, all of the shots were pre-meditated by the director, to the extent that the director would act out the scene for every single character. Being a storyboard artist sounds like a challenging job to do, as Christian said he had to redraw one scene 38 times. And he worked on the storyboards for the whole film. Doing storyboards is something which I would like to cover in more detail at some point, as it will allow me to develop my drawing skills more. One piece of advice Christian did give was to have an adaptive drawing style if you want to be a storyboard artist; as you draw to suit the director, which will be different in most cases.
Overall I took a lot of inspiration and motivation away from the festival. Sometimes all you need is a bit of a jump start, and going to this festival really gave me a jump.
The last talk of the day, and one of my favourites of the whole festival was by Christian De Vita, a storyboard artist who worked on fantastic Mr. Fox. I seen Fantastic Mr. Fox a couple of months before and really enjoyed the film. Christian talked through the full process of drawing out storyboards. He talked about how closely you work with the director, because working as a story board artist is really putting down the director’s vision onto paper. And judging by what Christian said, all of the shots were pre-meditated by the director, to the extent that the director would act out the scene for every single character. Being a storyboard artist sounds like a challenging job to do, as Christian said he had to redraw one scene 38 times. And he worked on the storyboards for the whole film. Doing storyboards is something which I would like to cover in more detail at some point, as it will allow me to develop my drawing skills more. One piece of advice Christian did give was to have an adaptive drawing style if you want to be a storyboard artist; as you draw to suit the director, which will be different in most cases.
Overall I took a lot of inspiration and motivation away from the festival. Sometimes all you need is a bit of a jump start, and going to this festival really gave me a jump.
Stoke your fires - Day 2 of the festival (Curtis Jobling)
The second day of the animation festival started with Curtis Jobling, an author and illustrator. You’ll know him from one of his most famous character designs, Bob the Builder. I really enjoyed Curtis’ talk as it was very encouraging and motivational. One of the best things he said was about your creative portfolio. He said that qualifications should never count more that the portfolio. If the work is good then it’s good, you don’t need a piece of paper with a qualification written on to say it’s good. In his words “the work should speak for itself”. I like this philosophy, because I believe this is how it should be. Even though I will have a degree at the end of my course, I’d hate to think that someone would judge me on my qualification and not the work itself.
He also said that getting work and jobs is sometimes down to being in the right place at the right time. The only way to make this happen is to “put yourself in the right place at the right time”. Curtis talked about using sketchbooks too. He said its good practice and it allows you to stock pile your work and ideas. He talked about character design a bit and said you should go through a character right from A to Z. In other words draw every possible shape size and style for the character to make sure you get what you want. It was stated that criticism is a good idea too. It allows you to bounce ideas around, and may lead you in a direction you would never have thought of. In my opinion the most important point he made was to “Put the hours in”. He said he left college with his portfolio and didn’t really like it at all, and it didn’t reflect what he could do. So he redid it in his own time after work and in the evenings. I think we all make excuses and say “oh, I can’t do that, I haven’t got the time”, but really were just not motivated enough. If you really want to do something then you will “make the time.
He also said that getting work and jobs is sometimes down to being in the right place at the right time. The only way to make this happen is to “put yourself in the right place at the right time”. Curtis talked about using sketchbooks too. He said its good practice and it allows you to stock pile your work and ideas. He talked about character design a bit and said you should go through a character right from A to Z. In other words draw every possible shape size and style for the character to make sure you get what you want. It was stated that criticism is a good idea too. It allows you to bounce ideas around, and may lead you in a direction you would never have thought of. In my opinion the most important point he made was to “Put the hours in”. He said he left college with his portfolio and didn’t really like it at all, and it didn’t reflect what he could do. So he redid it in his own time after work and in the evenings. I think we all make excuses and say “oh, I can’t do that, I haven’t got the time”, but really were just not motivated enough. If you really want to do something then you will “make the time.
Stoke your fires - Day 1 of the festival
So, the day after the Master Class the actual festival started. It kicked off with Scott Tom, the Lead Fabricator from LAIKA (The Company who made Coraline). Scott’s talk was really insightful, and it gave me a better understanding of how the whole stop motion process works on a bigger scale. Can you believe that there were 10,000 faces for the Coraline Model alone!! I’ll never complain again about making one stop motion model with a few faces.
In the afternoon there was a talk by Paul wells, Director of the animation academy at Loughborough University. Paul talked about the writing behind animation, how relevant animation is and the archive of British animation collections which is a project he is working on, trying to archive all the British animation created in the past. The archive of British animation was something which intrigued me. When I thought about it, there wasn’t that many British animation companies that I could think of that I knew about from the past. Most of the research I had done resulted in studying American animation, Disney, Warner Bros, Hanna Barbara. These were the foundations of my knowledge of animation. The only real British influence has been Aardman animations.
In the afternoon there was a talk by Paul wells, Director of the animation academy at Loughborough University. Paul talked about the writing behind animation, how relevant animation is and the archive of British animation collections which is a project he is working on, trying to archive all the British animation created in the past. The archive of British animation was something which intrigued me. When I thought about it, there wasn’t that many British animation companies that I could think of that I knew about from the past. Most of the research I had done resulted in studying American animation, Disney, Warner Bros, Hanna Barbara. These were the foundations of my knowledge of animation. The only real British influence has been Aardman animations.
Stoke your fires festival of animation (Masterclass)
I’m backtracking a few weeks here, but it’s something which has been a big highlight of my year so far. At the end of February I travelled down to stoke with a friend to attend the “Stoke your fires festival of animation”.
We went down a day earlier to attend the Master class with Lee Danskin of escape studios called “How to become a World-class animator". Lee specialises in 3D animation and visual effects, and started his career on the development team for the Maya 1.0 software. Although he specialises in the 3D and visual effects world, some the advice he gave would be relevant to most people in the industry. When the master class was finished I left the lecture theatre with more knowledge than I went in with, which is always reassuring.
So, some of the advice he gave was:
•To be focused on exactly what you want to do.
•Identify what specific area you want to work in and what specific job you want to do. For example if you want to be an animator, don’t just say “I want to work in animation”. Say what technique of animation you want to specialise in and what section of the animation sector you want to work in e.g. film, TV, commercials, broadcast.
•Identify your goals in life and your lifestyle choice. For example do you want a career where you are constantly thinking about what you do and work long hours, or do you want a job what you do when you go to work and forget about when you go home.
•Would you be willing to relocate??? This will majorly effect what jobs you will get and links into the lifestyle choice.
•Draw – This was one of the best pieces of advice he gave in my opinion. He said that drawing is essential in all areas of animation; weather its stop-motion, 3D, hand drawn… I too believe this to be essential for all animators, as it is the foundation of any project.
•Refer to the 12 principles of animation – This is a piece of advice I took on board. I know how easy it is to get on with a piece of animation and get bogged down with the project. Then you feel like the animation is lacking something. In this situation, Refer to the principles of animation. You never know how much they could help your work along.
We went down a day earlier to attend the Master class with Lee Danskin of escape studios called “How to become a World-class animator". Lee specialises in 3D animation and visual effects, and started his career on the development team for the Maya 1.0 software. Although he specialises in the 3D and visual effects world, some the advice he gave would be relevant to most people in the industry. When the master class was finished I left the lecture theatre with more knowledge than I went in with, which is always reassuring.
So, some of the advice he gave was:
•To be focused on exactly what you want to do.
•Identify what specific area you want to work in and what specific job you want to do. For example if you want to be an animator, don’t just say “I want to work in animation”. Say what technique of animation you want to specialise in and what section of the animation sector you want to work in e.g. film, TV, commercials, broadcast.
•Identify your goals in life and your lifestyle choice. For example do you want a career where you are constantly thinking about what you do and work long hours, or do you want a job what you do when you go to work and forget about when you go home.
•Would you be willing to relocate??? This will majorly effect what jobs you will get and links into the lifestyle choice.
•Draw – This was one of the best pieces of advice he gave in my opinion. He said that drawing is essential in all areas of animation; weather its stop-motion, 3D, hand drawn… I too believe this to be essential for all animators, as it is the foundation of any project.
•Refer to the 12 principles of animation – This is a piece of advice I took on board. I know how easy it is to get on with a piece of animation and get bogged down with the project. Then you feel like the animation is lacking something. In this situation, Refer to the principles of animation. You never know how much they could help your work along.
Hello :)
Hey, this is my second attempt at blogging. My first attempt wasn’t exactly great, got bogged down with college work and life, and forgot all about it. So here I am, trying my hand at creating a blog once again. Hopefully this time it will be more of a continuous thing. You can expect to see and hear about all things creative going on in my world. SJ
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