If you're going through Hell. Keep Going!

So I'd like to think this is my first post in a long time which signifies that I'm getting my life back on track after my downfall through substance abuse, refresher bars are a terrible addiction which I need to weed myself off of.

Anyway!!

I've been thinking, people have short attention spans, people complain and people expect you to explain without thinking for themselves. I was thinking... I might produce occasional videos, not animation related, just video's which explain my current work flow... Not V-log's. The idea has been shunned, told that it's a copy of "Sequalitis" (YouTube it) and that it's too much hassle (you know who you are). That aside, what I received was a generally good response, see, people don't like to read essay after essay...

Unless their that way inclined.

Like me.

Another thing, I know I'm meant to upload frequent work to this decaying mess of a blog but I can't help but feel a bit anxious when doing so, the idea of a small house troll in China checking my blog and stealing my content and flogging it on the flea market is terrifying which is why, for those of you with a keen eye, you'll notice that my uploaded work is always in a mediocre JPEG format, it's not that I think my work's good, I'm just paranoid as hell.

I set out to keep up this blog and its post, I didn't. The course I'm currently studying, Animation (would you believe it) just asks for more than what the average 20 year old asks of, it's a frequent battle with work but the outcome pays off, sure I get bombarded with the usual, "you need to get out more", "you don't have a social life", "you're anti-social" but the truth of the matter is, i'm content, I enjoy working away in my cave of a room, I don't see the point in drinking myself into a coma and let's be honest, you drink to make yourself happy, "drink brings out the real you" is a stupid quote, what it actually does is turn a boring sod, into an interesting one.

This all aside, work is coming along well, my ability to throw out relatively quick tests have been beneficial and by the end of the week, I'm hoping to have at least one scene done, the main crux of the entire module has been based around the development of my character's and plot, I'm quite frankly not going to pursue something unless I'm satisfied... Which is very rarely the case. In any case, here's a rough pencil test I threw together this morning, it gets the basic movement down and once it's inked and captured with the correct lighting, it'll be pretty straight forward to colour... I say that now, nothing's ever that easy.

If you're already walking on thin ice... You might as well dance.

I've really let this blog slip, I've had allot more on my plate than usual and this, THIS BLOG has really taken a hit because of it. I've started on my first scene, the backgrounds are produced for the scenes and the environment is built within a 3D structure so architecture is consistent. Amazing what you can do with technology.

First of all, I drew out a really quick map on Photoshop Microsoft Paint with my foot.

I then began building the mountains in Cinema 4D,
using the map as a template, extruding and shifting things into place.

After a weeks worth of work I finally had the scenery ready,
and I think you'll agree, it's a work of art!

So using really professional handiwork, I zoomed in on a scene I wished to use,
then I took hold of my DSLR camera and took a picture of it,
I then wired the camera in my computer and traced back over the
black and white since the original picture was heavily distorted. In total it took a month. 

I then produced this in Microsoft Paint by
means of importing the previous image in and drawing over it.

Then I installed a Microsoft Paint plug-in called "Adobe Photoshop"
and added more effects to make the background less in your face,
more subdued and more reminiscent of the old Wile.E Coyote cartoon's. 

The character's have changed too, can you believe that!? I can't, I'm fickle like that... But I'm pleased at how the character's turned out. A few questioned whether or not the line work was digital, it isn't, it's just the work of a 0.5 and a 0.05 fine-liner.

Piper is now an Elephant shrew whose nose deflates when under pressure.
Snorre Hapless now has a bigger nose and his hair formation has changed.
Magnus Gabbro isn't a segmented character, he's more boulder-like, that said, he's also a puppet!
Blob is a character who isn't set in-stone just yet,
if I DO use him, he'll reside in Gabbro's head in a paddling pool using levers to control Gabbro.    

Piper is too dark in colour here so his palette will be lightened.
Hapless has red hair as opposed to black, it was advised to give him coloured pants... I doubt I will.
Gabbro was also advised to be lightened, this said he doesn't work well as a lighter palette.
Blob was laughed at... People like him... Her... It...

Furthermore, here's my first test animation in regards to scene 1... The first leg movement is a bit flimsy but easily fixed... Which is why I fixed it in test 2... Still not 100% but I think it does the job.

Within the next week, hell, I just want to get my work done. That's all to be honest... I could be elaborate and go, "well gee... I have to write up my progression, get stuff drawn and then animate it and composite it all..." And a note to myself... I need have my CV and Personal Statement done in about 2 weeks... This is really depressing to know... 

Finally, I want to give word about a currently under-looked musician, YouTube user, Italented. I don't know the guy but I really like his work, it's different so if you can, wrack up his views, make him feel special.

Your Life Is An Occasion. Rise To It!

So anyways, health wise I haven't been great... Stayed up the majority of last week in a panic to get everything done... It put a bit of a strain on my body to say the least and I'm still feeling the bad back, chest pains and lack of drive. Fantastic. In any case, the actual presentation didn;t go as bad as I thought, my time management was slated... Mainly because I just had an explosion on my page and said, "basically... I'm going to panic..." This aside, my project was taken mostly with favour, a few colours were told to be changed on the character's and Piper is to be simplified... Again! The animatic received some laughs... Mainly because of how bad it was... 

Given that the animatic has no sound, here's a piece you could choose to listen too... Or not.

Now, a few notable changes are to be made to the animatic, at the end, Hapless again tries to catch Piper, the thing is, Piper is able to escape and Hapless finds himself running in mid-air, his halo and wings disappear and he drops into the fires of hell. I also need to find ways to cheat footage so that I can repeat loops, speaking of which I was told to parody the use of recycled footage, anyone who watch the old He-Man cartoon's will know what I mean. 

Here are a couple of concept pieces I produced for the presentation... I thought they were decent at the time... They're really not. 

The best way out is always through.

So then, interview... At Sunderland University... Not going to lie... I was pretty terrified. It's a big deal y'know? I'd really like to pursue a third year in education and leave with a bachelor of arts qualification, it's what I set out to do 4 years ago... Jesus Christ... Has it really been 4 years!?

Anyway! The preparation for the interview, such as print out's and wallet's cost me near £60... That's a bit of a dick when you think that really, £43 of that money went towards the print out's... Mind you, I had in total about 20-30 sleeves so my portfolio was anything but bare.

I added a fair bit to the portfolio, it was pretty much filled with screen shots of previous work.
Not going to lie... I cried allot when composing the sheets... I hate the majority of my work, especially 2.5D...

Allot of people liked this, it was my 2011 life draw... Yeah... Life draw...
Anyway, I took a snappy-shot with my camera, brought out the contrast more and stuck it in my portfolio...
The sheet is what... A2? And the image is PACKED with detail so I doubt I'll ever be able to produce a digital image which shows EVERYTHING!

Finally, my showreel, I wasn't particularly pleased with it considering it was produced at 2am on the day of my interview (but it's our little secret). Honestly, I hate the work I had to put into this... And I was even told that I'm far too modest and that I don't sell myself, I just find it hard to be arrogant, I hate arrogance. Sunderland seems all right though to be fair, sure, I'd like to have known more stuff on the tour but I got to ask questions in the interview and that was good enough for me. 

It took me over an hour to get there... And an hour to get back... My MP3 player ran out of batteries and I was sat there, with a stinking bad head ache... And a back, knotted with tension. What's worse, I've found out that the Dr. Carbonate model I made...

Is none existent...

Great...

I was pretty pleased with that model but the truth of the matter is, if I've done it before, I can do it again, and most likely better than before. What I'd like to do is make his design more reminiscent of a Playstation 1 polygon model, much like Crash Bandicoot.

But one thing I have promised myself to do is go ahead with my Cancer idea at some point, preferably next year, I've begun doing my own research, mainly taking inspiration from Batman since the context is similar and I'm sure some purist will knock me down because of that. What I've learnt however, is that no idea is ever truly original, nearly everything that can be done, has been done, it's about taking such a premise that has been done and put a spin on it and that's what I'm aiming for.

TenNapel

Doug TenNapel, an animator, musician, author, essayist, Eisner Award-winning artist and full time Christian is someone who, for the most part of my later years in life, is someone who I've aspired too.

Most people know Doug through the iconic character, Earthworm Jim a series which started off as a game and soon became a 90's Saturday Morning cartoon which shared allot of traits with that of the game itself, both were never too serious and completely out there in terms of creativity, character designs were also outstanding and unique, comprising of different body types, structures, shapes and exterior personality, what's interesting to note is that the character's of Earthworm Jim, Psycrow, Evil the Cat and almost every other character, was that Doug produced all of them within an hour or so and that in itself is worth bragging about. 

What am I getting at? To be honest, I wish I knew. This is just a student showing his appreciation towards an animator who offered something, idea's, inspiration, style and technique, too often people people aspire towards the well known, I won't deny that I've praised the work of Chuck Jones, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera until I was blue in the face, but I praise them for a reason and it's the same reason I praise TenNapel, because what he offers is a form of escapism, world's which are so alike yet abstract that you can really delve into them and explore them whether it be the world of The Neverhood, Gear, Earthworm Jim, Creature Tech, Zoo, which ever one you pick up, granted it will be different from the other, even in the slightest detail. 

What I particularly love about TenNapel's work, both old and new, is the use of colour and how it's applied, with the conceptual art of Earthworm Jim in particular, TenNapel portrayed his character's beautifully through means of simplistic cartoon shapes with impeccable attention to detail with colour giving a two dimensional character, that sense that it's in three dimensional space. The use of colour in general is, I think really well done in anycase, vibrant, bold but easy on the eye. Nice. It's TenNapel's work which has for a long time, inspired the exterior creation of my character's, making a character speak for them self instead of it consisting of big eyes, spiky hair and another generic Eastern culture voice but that's a rant for another time. I may add more to this little article later on and definitely will do more consisting of other artist's which, well, I aspire too. 

If by some weird turn of events Doug DOES read this... 

I love you. 

My week so far!

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-ll of good times.

Also I like cheese!

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

I stressed out a fair bit over work and in doing that put a massive strain on my body, I really need to learn that life isn't all about work but then again, if I don't try, I won't succeed. My back is knackered along with my chest and honestly, I feel broken. Marvellous.
With word of interviews coming up, I've begun producing piece's to add to my portfolio, this piece was what I originally wanted to pursue in the first place instead of "Standing Up for the Little Guy", it's a more personal piece but its undertones and general premise were classed as, "too touchy" which I highly disagree with, that aside I feel it has potential to get somewhere so I'm going to stick at it, not to mention, it was fun to do.

With this, I have also began producing an animation test or two, just to, well, experiment, it's been fun too! I'm starting to flesh out the world and its people, myself and a very good friend are bouncing idea's back and forth and it's really working wonders! The more I work on this idea the more I wish I had been granted access to work on it, like I said, it's a personal piece but one which I feel could be justified, it certainly isn't malicious, nor does it fall under my usual sadistic humour, it is what it is and what it is, is something i'll explain in more detail once the ball gets rolling. 

Furthermore, I was informed of some competition sites, so it doesn't hurt to keep note of them...

Watershed Call for Entries

AOI Comps

Future Lions

D&AD

YCN

Eyeka