I need to post something...

I have allot to stick on here but I'm just busy doing stuff, I'm taking a break from AD202 for a couple of days in order to finish of AD207 (that's the treatment and storyboard module) thing is... I may have changed the character's and story so I need to rewrite the script but it's actually nearly finished and the group work won't take long, loops are a piece of piss to do and since we're using block colouring then that's even easier...

Here's my Rat animation reworking's so far... I would've scanned them in... But I'm far too lazy.

With this added strain of work, it's making things a bit tricky but it'll be all cush... Why? Because I have no life to lose. 

64 HITS!

Just some snap shots from today, I'll go more into this later on.

Scene 1- Connor

Takes place in this environment.

Scene 2- Dan

Scene 3- Callum

What to do, what to do...

If anything these past post's have been ways of procrastination... Mainly to fill space... I'm just thinking about what I need to do... Let's see... I need to back log my Blog so it's consistent and possesses continuity, I have a real OCD about that sort of stuff... Let's see what else? I need to catch up on development work, which is close to being complete and along with that knock research on the head which is only a few pages short of being complete and then just crack on with some line tests and character designs.

Furthermore I need to produce an up-to-date script for the B-Movie as well as an accompanying storyboard, I'm not going to spend age's on it like my last batch. If I have time, I'd like to go back to the B-Movie or produce my own little film and basically just enhance it using After Effect's to gain a better understanding of the program.

Finally, I need to rewrite my "Standing Up For The Little Guy" script since I want things to pan out a bit differently so in turn the storyboards need to be changed and updated... They too will have to be quickly done, as long as you can see what's going on then it should work out pretty well! I also need to develop my character's, mainly Snorre, tweak them a smidge and work on environment and story.

So let's see... On my to do list...

Project A:
- Complete Research for AD202
- Update Development of AD202
- Produce more character line test's

Project B:
- Up-to-Date B-Movie Script
- Up-to-Date B-Movie Storyboards
- Possible tweaks and enhancements to footage

Project C:
- Develop Characters, Story and Setting for "Standing Up For The Little Guy"
- Rewrite script for "Standing Up For The Little Guy"
- Produce Storyboards for "Standing Up For The Little Guy"

Project D:
- Back log Blog
- Enhance Blog

Looks like allot... It really isn't, as I said, the Research is near completion, the development is ongoing and character designs and line tests are more fun than anything, I can produce character's but I can't produce line tests properly until Monday due to my room being refurbished, it's so exciting and as I said before, I'm now aiming for abooout 50 initial character's and see how they develop from there, I'll be reusing character tests and simply recolouring them so I can't make the animation's too intensive, simple and straight forward.

The Script is already written for the B-Movie, "The Page" most of the storyboards are done so it's a case of just adding scenes and considering it didn't take long to begin with, it's not a giant task furthermore with the final product done, I can just overlay and tweak it even more OR using the raw footage, I can start from scratch, I'm drawn towards the latter but i'll only attempt this if the rest of the work is up to date. I looked up this incredible tutorial video for inspiration...



Character Development won't take long, I have in mind what I want to achieve out of the character's so I won't be going severely out my way to achieve better results, not much is changing about the script either, locations are being spaced out and the ending needs work but I really want to get this finalized for hand-in, polished and fully produced. Concept art production is also something which I may pursue if I have the time and finally the storyboards will be easily achievable since I'm not going to extreme lengths to produce high quality work, I want the storyboards to at least be understandable, I have about 90 images to do for the storyboard so I'd rather not push it due to time constraints.

Finally the Blog, fairly straight forward, it's tricky to stay on top of, especially when I have more important things to worry about but I'll try to stay on top of it all. Is that enough writing? Drained? I am...

Allot of Alternative Inspirational Pieces...

It hasn't been long since my last post but whilst searching the web, I came across some Alternative Art (Alt Art) which is basically alternative takes on art, so say for example the picture of Freeza from Dragonball Z I did a while ago, he looks different and that's an alternative take on the character... Y'with me? Anyways, I just want to share these pieces because quite honestly, I really like them!!

A realistic take on Spongebob, I love how it's basically hyper realistic character's with the same sort of get-up as their cartoon counterpart's. 

A medieval version of the DC Universe Super Heroes... Makes me think they would actually work better like this... 

More so the character design's than anything, I love how the character's have been given a greater sense of character through the use of how they present themselves, I also really like the art style.

Just a nice, twisted take on Cinderella, very bright, vibrant colours and it doesn't suffocate you with an immense amount of detail.

I just found this funny... A bizarre take on the Pokemon world.

Toy Story... I really love the gritty design on this, reminds me of an old Clint Eastwood Western movie...  It's interesting to see a more serious approach being given to these character's.

On the subject of Clint Eastwood, I'd say this piece inspired me the most, it might be an interesting idea to merge famous movie's with popular video game character's, it's a thought and this proves that it works relatively well, there's enough detail to allow the viewer to identify just who the character is and his general persona.

Their rivalry predates the comic's, I love the colour scheme to this, rich, bold and seemingly dark, it's a beautiful combination of two worlds.

And Finally...

Wow, just wow... Such a magnificent piece, the composition, the art, the attention to detail is just so jaw droppingly gorgeous! Everytime I look at this image I notice something new and it makes me want to attempt to, not produce a piece of the same quality but a piece which bares similar character composition and placement.

I'm not the most patient of people...

And lately my work has just taken a massive hit, y'see, with this Ident Animation, I want to have an array of characters so I'm working towards 100 initial idea's but they're dwindling... So I might just have to, iunno, fixate my face to the screen and look up character designs? Something along those lines perhaps but I draw the line when character design stops being character design and starts being lazy and simple, I've covered this a few times, I understand that the contemporary animation industry is booming with seemingly original concepts but are they pushing anything new? Absolutely not, in fact it's all becoming very similar, "vector-esc" and it does nothing for me for the most part since it doesn't fuel the imagination, I look at it, go, "yeah, a 5 minute job" and move on but with some other pieces I look and think, "how the hell did they do that?" It literally blows my mind!!

It's not because I'm bitter towards the contemporary, if I was I wouldn't be going to Pictoplasma but I do genuinely feel that "Artists" are given far more praise than they deserve for something which is relatively standard... The reason this has been an issue to me is because it's made me feel lost that even within the contemporary industry you're limited to what's acceptable and what isn't, gone are the days of real, tedious effort and in it's place are very bare bone concepts with not allot of thought in them, going back to my Yeti Design I did a while back, sure it got some nice feedback from peer's, family and friends but I knew fine well I wouldn't get in, I put a fair bit of effort in but that's not what it's about, it's about simple designs, I saw the winner's and truthfully... It was the same sort of vector-based work i've seen win before, buuut I'd rather not be a sheep and follow the crowd. Anyways, what was I getting too... Oh yeah!

I'm out of idea's and I have no drive to work, I know what has to be done but it's just tedious as all hell... On second thought, I might just work to 50 designs... Grab a handful and develop them... See what happens... This would all be so much easier if I had a bigger table, speaking of which I am getting a bigger working table, the ol' dining room one, I'm so excited!! I'm really easily pleased by the simplest of things, as long as it does the job! I s'pose I've just been down this week and it's starting to pick up eventually, hopefully next week and the weekend for that matter, will be much more pleasant, just need to find some more imagery like this to getting some Idea's going...

Back on Track Slightly...

I realise I've fallen behind on my blog work so I'm working on amending it...

By which I mean I'm sliding in posts and changing their post date... I just have a real issue with continuity so back track, y'might see a few "in-betweeners". The look has changed... Again! That said it looks cleaner and I'm just trying to be as professional as possible without being too pretentious since I'd like to retain some... Personal Character? To my blog... So you might realise that description's, titles and other bits and bob's have been changed and updated...

My work's taken another hit so I'm a bit bummed about it being called, "shit" but it really just wants to make me try harder, I'm not arrogant and egotistical about my work and more so than any, I'm my own worst critic so I just need to try and improve. The IDent stuff is getting there though!

Here's a few rough line test's, I could improve them and I might but I have a good few to do and truthfully I've taken the night off, I'm just not in the right mood to work but when I get on a roll with writing, like now, I start to enjoy it and get the drive to get going again!

Anyways, I'll be throwing in a few more post's hopefully at some point, just understand that it's been tricky keeping up with work, looking at it all at the moment, I've churned out a fair bit of work this past 3 or so weeks and I want to retain that quality of work, something takes a hit and that tends to be the Blog.

Dink.

Sqwark.

Also, since I reside within the confinements of my attic, it get's pretty damn cold so I use a little gas fire, my diet consists of a couple of meals a day and Muller Rice's... Just sitting, working away then, "snap" it hit me...

...It didn't work as well as I'd hope, it was warm... And cold.

Dear Diary...

...Don't promise to update blog and make it all fancy and not live up to it.

On another note entirely, I've just been sat on my arse drawing stupid character's for this Ident Malarky. My goal is to just have LOADS done by the beginning of next week, this A) Gives me a reason to be lazy and just draw and B) Gives me a reason not to write as much... OH! And just to sound like, y'know, professional n' shizz C) it will benefit my drawing abilities, I might finally reach the level of drawing like a toddler!

I've given my career a thought... I want to aspire to be like these guys...

It's time for a Gang Bang Collaboration!

Well, the new project's been set, make an MTV Ident! My group this time consists of myself (obviously) Connor Barrass, Dan Lunn and Papa Tom Maggs. Already idea's have been thrown around and a possible premise may have already been set!!

Remember those old Cartoon Network Ident's? No?







This ring a bell?

Well, I really, really, REALLY want to do something like this, a diverse assortment of character style's and animation's what it allows is that my group work as a team but also individually. Compositing good quality 2D and even 3D animation onto live footage could turn out really swanky, especially if the character's are quite flat then the lighting can simply be applied and it will work accordingly... For now, that's all, like I said I'll backtrack my blog and make it pretty!

Fell behind on the Blog lately haven't I?

I've been so caught up in work that I just don't have the chance to update this little Blog of mine... Still not happy with the design... It's kind of just... Fell apart... What a pity... But life's been hectic lately... It's been a headache more than anything.

So other than that, what's been going on? Well we've started group work... Which is either a make or breaker depending on whether or not everyone's committed to it, so far it's been alright, had to do a B Movie project as you may be aware from my last few, pointless post's, that was two weeks long, this being the third week has been quiet, it's made a nice change if anything, I had my presentation earlier this week, what this embodied was work which up until now, I had produced, things like character she- Oh... I still need to put them up don't I? Hmm... I think when I get home this afternoon I'll give this blog some good loving as well as some other work, just really in the mood to work lately, it's lovely.

Ideally I want to get back into the swing of doing daily blog's or almost daily, mainly to try and gather a larger crowd of followers, at the time being, I'm working on producing my animation, "Standing Up for the Little Guy" which needs work to be fully polished, it's no where near the standard I want it at and when it comes down to it, I really want to push myself above and beyond anything which I've previously done. Furthermore, it came up that the thi- Shit, they're not third years anymore, they're fourth... Anyways, some people I know set up an exhibition and what's more made money from it! Now, i'm in shit creek at the moment as far as money goes (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) so I think trying to produce work which is at least half decent is more than ever mandatory, anyways, back to the point, me and my friend, David Denny (check out his work) are thinking about setting up our own exhibition when we can, so what I plan to do is pull out the ol' Marker Box and produce some one-time piece's, sell those, produce digital pieces and sell those in limited quantities i.e. Print 1/50, 2/50... You get the idea. What I want to do is make it so that once the piece's are gone, they're done, finished, you won't be able to buy them again unless I get allot of positive feedback and people saying, "c'mon you tight git! Do another batch!" buuut I'm getting ahead of myself.

I was stumped as to what to do then it came to me, I love, love, LOVE Dragonball Z but I've really distanced myself from the anime/manga culture so I really wouldn't mind "Westernising" the villains... I've been producing rough sketches in my little sketch book and so far the results are getting there, I produced a rough sketch of Frieza!! That's it for now, I'll motivate myself to get on here more often, hope everyone is well!!

I'm not dead!


Yet.

What a hassle... Pixelation is working!

I've been lacking any sort of updates lately, sorry but i've been worked up to the hilt trying to produce a good amount of work so something's had to take a hit and it's been the blog, again sorry. You may notice it's got a new look... That i'm still not happy with so i'll keep at it!

To all of those who were in my pixelation group on Friday, I eventually got the video rendered, the Dragon Frame website doesn't help at all so I'm quite chuffed that I figured it out by myself...

By figure out I mean hit a load of buttons and hoped for the best. I'll get it uploaded to a video sharing site OR you can nab a copy off me during college, whatever you like!

The Page Script

INT. ALLEY – NIGHT

The scene is established of a black and white, film grain filtered alley with a middle view shot, an eerie mist covering the ground. Ashleigh walks down this alley with the camera positioned at a low angle, the light which has made it into the tunnel casts a shadow of Page which starts off small but grows big and monstrous looking, giving the idea that the creature, what ever it is, is intimidating and a being to be feared. Ashleigh stops after hearing a noise, turns around and as she does so, the camera cuts to the lower right corner of the alley entrance, from there, the Page seemingly merrily trots around from the corner. The camera cuts back to Ashleigh who smiles, believing the Page to be a friendly creature, from there the camera cuts back to the Page to a zoom in on its face which it then rips off, showing a vile, malicious face. The camera cuts once again, this time giving a greater establishment of the street and the general location, with the notorious Wilhelm scream filling the streets.

TRANSITION.

Crack of Thunder White Screen, cliché horror music begins which leads onto…

INT. FLOOR

A character is being strangled my 2 metal hands at a close up low angle shot, the Title Logo appears through a wipe transition, “The Page”

INT. LIVING ROOM RADIO

The camera slowly zooms in on the radio with the narrator, of whose voice is coming seemingly from the radio, speaking in the Background.

Narrator: The Page is out there.

INT. TOILET STALL/BATHROOM

A hand pulls down the toilet paper, revealing a face drawn onto the sheet. The Wilhelm scream occurring once more.

INT. LIVING ROOM RADIO

The camera is where it was last time during the living room scene, this time zooming in on the radio more so again with the narrator, of whose voice is coming seemingly from the radio, speaking in the Background.

Narrator: It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with.

INT. BEDROOM DOOR

One of the actors is pressed up against the wall, terrified at a low angle shot. The camera cuts to a high angle shot that depicts the character’s feet, Page appears from under the door craves, this scene in particular builds upon suspense.

INT. LIVING ROOM RADIO

The camera is where it was last time during the living room scene, this time zooming in on the radio more so again with the narrator, of whose voice is coming seemingly from the radio, speaking in the Background.

Narrator: It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear.

INT. PAGE PAPER

In this scene the camera is at first fixed on Page’s body at a middle shot, writing out on his body, “You will…” the camera zooms in as he writes, “Die”. The tone of the music must be especially dramatic here.

INT. LIVING ROOM RADIO

The camera is where it was last time during the living room scene, this time zooming in on the radio more so again with the narrator, of whose voice is coming seemingly from the radio, speaking in the Background.

Narrator: And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until we are all dead.

INT. DOOR

Character opens a door, camera is at a close up, a metal hand grabs their arm quickly, giving the viewer a horrifying fright.

INT. TITLE SCREEN

Narrator: Coming Soon

If we have time this next scene will play.

INT. INFRONT OF A HOUSE

Character is stood, the camera at a low angle giving view to both the actor and roof of the building behind, the Page is atop the roof, it hisses and jumps off, preparing to lunge at the actor, a just of wind picks up and the sheet is blown away.

B Movie Work!!

Making it pretty!

So! As you can probably tell, I'm working on the design of my blog... Again... My first run wasn't successful, it was a bit... Bland? Anyways, it shouldn't take too long to make another, make it good... Dandy... And swell!

Anyways! 9 weeks worth of work was handed in yesterday, I felt like a boss after walking out of those college doors at 5pm after putting the finishing touches to my work. I had it all ready and hit my Thursday target, only thing that set me back was mounting... I'm not good at it, my tutor Dave said he'd help me but understandably he had his own deadline to meet and oddly enough I had a feeling it wouldn't get done. I was told to just mount my work onto foam board and leave it at that... But I couldn't... This feeling inside was saying, "you've gotten THIS far and you're handing in that in the state it is?" So I plucked up the courage and attempted to cut the foam board, making them presentable, I was a bit shaky since the last time I cut foam board I ended up slicing deep into my finger...

The first board went a bit tits up since I lost my gripping, after that though, I focused and flew through them, doing a decent job with them at that, I got it all handed in and I've got to say I tried damn hard and only hope the results pay off, even if they don't then I'll just try harder next time!

Son of a bitch...

One last thing to do and it's nearly done... The hardest part of any project, research, it's so BORING!! Can't I just look at them and NOT write about them? Would be easier...

Anyways, shit happened and files haven't saved meaning the line tests I was working on are gone and I don't have the time to redo them, I'm too tired, I've got 52 movies showcasing different line tests, different timing, attempts and so on... Surely that will account towards something... The last push to do work is never easy, I feel really worn out, after this, all that needs doing is to print off my 9 character sheets and that'll be me done... Here's hoping for good luck!

Quick 5 minute break...

It's no exaggeration when I say that i've worked none stop all day today and for the past few days and my back is really starting to feel the strain... Makes me feel old...

Today I've been "power-modelling" as I like to call it, I call it this because I HAVE to get this model finished today so I can start the rig tomorrow and hopefully get it sorted relatively quickly. Thankfully, the only animation needed is from Magnus, the robot, is going for sitting down to standing up. It took an hour (if that) to make the original mesh, then I got told, "make each part separately, it'll become more robot-like" so that's what i've been doing today and my god it's been a chore...

Each slab is made from an individual cube, so far there's 50 slabs, I wasn't stupid enough to do each one individually and did copy and paste a few slabs, mainly to cover the back since that's really a part you don't see. Either way it's close to being somewhat finished... Hopefully...

As for 2D animation progress... It's... Been interesting. I've redrawn the cycles quite allot and achieving a distinct look has been challenging. I can't remember if I covered it in my last blog entry, but I'm sticking to 1 tone colours, it speeds up production time, I hate it as much as the next guy since I want to produce the best I can but I've really had to nip the bud and go, "right, draw the line here". So using Piper as a demonstration, this has been the progression of work...

The first tests used the original scan-in line work as the basis, when this proved inefficient due to drops in quality I traced over the pre-existing line work, this time digitally which made Piper look cleaner. That said, feedback brought up the issue that the original outline ink work for Piper made him more rat-like whereas the digital retrace kept the inner detail, so I did the obvious, merged them and the outcome was satisfactory... I could knit-pick but I'm at a stage where I really just need to get a move on, if issues arise further down the line, i'll address them, for the time being however, I'll stick with this...

Snorre's frames were the cause of this whole change in the first place, using the original line work was meant to be a quick way of whacking out animation... Yeah right! They turned out hideous!

The next weeks plans are simple, get everything sorted. Paper work is nearly all finished, the weekend will be a bit strenuous, need to add the finishing tweaks to a character sheet or two, script and then, hopefully, do a few more animations. I keep worrying but really, I've basically finished... Not that I'm happy with my work, the quality is pretty shoddy and I don't know if I'm fully satisfied with it, the animations need tightening and perfected but I can't see that being a tedious over haul but we'll see how it goes!

Also the Yeti! It's been a while since I've blogged so here's the final stages as well as the final outcome!

I think that's everything, don't expect a post tomorrow... I quite simply have to much to do to worry about ANOTHER post. I don't know when the next update will be but expect a nice new look to this drab blog in the near future. Take care, love you all... Except you... Yeah... YOU!

On the train...

You ever had it when you're just on the train, minding your own business... Then BAM! You look in one direction and see a cretinous being staring at you... It happened... And this was my response.

...Anyone who knows me will probably know I just wanted an excuse to use this GIF... It's brilliant. 

Anyways, I'm on a roll with writing work so I'm just going to get back to it. Not much more to do now, happy days! I have quite allot of idea's spiralling around in my head but the perfectionist side of me always sees fault in my idea's which is why, for the most part, allot of them never take off... It's annoying to be blunt, maybes I should, for once, drop the restraints and just go for a totally balls to the walls idea and produce it, maybes next Summer, I will, see how it goes till then though.

And again... Another Yeti update... I'm growing tired of these so I might just knock it on the head soon, that said it keeps me coming back to my Blog ssooo it works both ways. 

Just to add a bit more, last night Photoshop crashed on me! It would load up but would crash when I tried to open up a new file! I was absolutely gutted! I tried to sort it out by the usual methods, restart, shut down then turn on, cross fingers, pray... None of it worked... It was as simple as installing a few new drivers and my god, it felt good... Sad thing was, it bastardised my early nights sleep...

Might want to click this bro!

...But in this world, there is no sleep, not when success is to be man-grabbed and wrestled to the ground!!

0.5/0.05

Fine-liners are incredible, I was told to buy 0.05 and 0.5 fine-liner's and although they weren't cheap the line quality is incredible! I've just looked over my work, a good few line tests so far, I'm quite pleased with myself but I know I have to do better so I'd rather not dwell in the moment.

This here is a crude size comparison of sorts, Piper's line work is inked out relatively well, Snorre's isn't but that's what I will fix tomorrow, thinking about, I don't have that much more to do, I'm pleased with myself to a degree since I've had to work on 3 vastly different character's and it's worked out quite well... So far at least.

Apart from that here's some more Yeti progression...

A much more cartoony look in general... 

Earlier on I had a drink, got a bit tipsy and started dicking around, I'm paying for it now with a head ache but it was interesting to see the results, if done correctly, I could achieve some rather nice stop motion / pixelation animation. 

I.

HAVE.

NO.

SHAME.

Enjoy.

SMARTY-PANTS

This week I've gotten quite a bit done, quickly going to run over what I wanna achieve within the next week...

Finish the model of Magnus: The mesh, as you've seen, is made, I plan to build upon that mesh using separate objects which allows (apparently) for a more easily animatable robot. I just have to build around the mesh, easily done!

Ink and colour: Get more line tests done, I plan on achieving about 5 lines tests each for Piper and Snorre and getting them fully coloured up.

Catch Up: On absolutely everything and anything which needs catching up on.

I've spoken about everything already... What else is there to comment on? Absolutely nothing for the time being... So I leave with this...



And this...



Speaking of which, don't know why, I got into a conversation about Pokemon, if they were real, which one would you have? For me? Arcanine.

I'm mature.