sams-animation

[sams-animation]

07/04/2024

I looked into more styles for this background, and the group seemed to really like the lineless one, so it could be worth exploring that in the future.

I've also been doing a lot of exploration trying to figure out shots from the animatic, and finalise my specialism tests.

[sams-animation]

31/03/2024

Teaching officially ended last week, but I've continued development on my backgrounds for Heavenly Accomplice. I thought it would be nice to have an outer shot of the castle (design by Iona), since this can really establish the style of the whole scene.

I tried a bunch of different colours for this piece, but the first one seemed to work really well, and the pinks align with what we've been going for while not being too overpowering like the feedback said.

This was the finished background for this.

I also was working on a couple of different beatboards from the animatic, and my 2D animation specialism test.

[sams-animation]

24/03/2024

Hello ! This week, it was pointed out to me by Simon that my greyscale values for this piece were off, so I changed them to have more lights and darks contrasting. This reminded me to check that the greyscale values for the rest of the group were not the same, and I realised when Denise posted in the teams that that may be the issue the colours are facing throughout the background department so far.

The colours for this piece seem a little murky in concepts, but I believe they get across the vibe well. The team responded well to the purple/green one for mood and atmosphere in colour, so I think that one is the best for the way forwards.

I've also been doing research into different cartoon shows to try to simplify the style a little more. Adventure time was really useful in this background.

[sams-animation]

17/03/2024

This week i've been designing thumbnails and trying to finalise a background. I have designed enough of the jousting scene that it can start to really come together now.

I've tried to make sure my concepts are as readable and replicable as possible, so that those in the background department can use them in their own developments.

This ended up being the finished concept, which I tried to make a cartoon-ish style. I used coloured lines instead of a particularly strong light to achieve the effect of the light without it being there. This is something I learned at move summit. Emilie Bach has been a huge inspiration for me during the semester since then. She works especially well since she worked on wolfwalkers and that is one of our earlier influences - though it has since been abandoned by the group.

[sams-animation]

10/03/2024

This week, I have been designing with the above scene in mind from the animatic.

I thought it could be useful to have specific designs for each part of the scene, since this can allow us to have a distinct style and make it easier to know how to replicate this stuff in other scenes. For example, I designed a flagpole and some fences.

Something like this could be used as concept in development, as well as for my own concepts. If others are using it, it can help us create a cohesive style and help them design too.

[sams-animation]

03/03/2024

I've been working on a lot of different vewn inspired designs to put in the style guide, and trying to include a lot of different notes whilst I do them so that they're easier to follow. Whilst I design, I've been looking at Vewn's youtube videos such as twins in paradise to try to mimic how they use perspective and linework. It's very interestingly disjointed and very deliberately mistake-ridden.

The above is a background which I've taken screenshots of the entire way through it's development - i'm hoping that with notes on the side the team should find it easier to design with now.

Though this is very much not a final background guide and I will be changing it as soon as we have a different style, I think its useful to know the tricks of the style while you're designing to design around it.

[sams-animation]

25/02/2024

I've started investigation into the official style of heavenly accomplice. I like the idea of a geometric, clean approach with lines, but I don't think the group liked it as much. They very much all agree on sticking closer to the vewn style. I'm still going to investigate lots of different styles since I think it's good to have a range of options, but I will go further down that path I think.

I also started to make brush tests so that I can get the opinion of the group members on the best one to implement in the style guide.

[sams-animation]

18/02/2024

Progress on Heavenly Accomplice! I have been assigned "lead background artist", so i'm in charge of keeping backgrounds consistent, ensuring style is clear, and creating a background guide. I'm going to be working on that soon so that people can start designing properly.

I've began designing the jousting scene, also. I looked into medieval re-enactments and how they represent historic objects, as well as experimented with pattern a lot. I also looked into colour schemes. I found beauty and the beast extremely useful for this! I think i'm starting to make progress in terms of these colour concepts.

For the designs of the banners and tents, it feels maybe a little bit too complicated, so i'd like to simplify further. The shape is also slightly unclear. One of the middle concepts has potential to go further though.

I think patterns are extremely difficult to make work, specifically those that are embroidery or unique motifs on banners. I'm having a lot of trouble with them, but I'm sure it will work out :)

[sams-animation]

This week i've been doing a lot of concept for my main project, trying to sort out a shape language that we can use to design. I'm struggling a lot with the style Vewn uses, since it's so loose and yet still looks good. It's difficult, I find, to make it appear intentional. I've started playing around with including motifs throughout designs, such as a crown motif for the castle possibly.

The colours have been very difficult to replicate, however. The ones i choose are extremely vibrant and offputting, and it's difficult to get them right. I'm hoping by doing a few more studies of different influences I can figure it out.

Another challenge of the style we're trying to take inspiration from is the warped perspective. It's difficult enough understanding perspective when it's normal, but when it's so warped as well as the combination of the loose lines, it almost seems like its not deliberate, which is not an effect I'd like to go for.

I started work on trying to sketch some individual rooms, trying to imagine objects that may exist within and what they'd look like.

[sams-animation]

04/02/2024

This week, we had our first group meetings. This was a relatively easygoing week. We sorted out our various ideas and research, looking into other avenues to explore and generally getting a feel for the projects. I'm with heavenly accomplice, who i'm very excited to be working with. The concept was interesting - a princess who wants to kill her suitor, with a novel twist on the traditional medieval colours using Vewn as an inspiration instead.

I'm going to be working mainly in backgrounds and 2D animation, but since I'm in production I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing. I imagine it will be like last semester, designing for Howl and the Man.

I also designed a medieval avatar like the rest of the group to represent myself on teams, and we all created pinterest boards to get inspiration from.

We have a presentation next week, which I have been working on some stuff for.

[sams-animation]

28/01/2024

This past week, we pitched our ideas for our fourth year films, and my Pitch, expectations, did not get picked. To be honest, I'm a little relieved, as being showrunner is a lot to handle. I got assigned to the group "Heavenly Accomplice", where we found out that the entire group is actually background artists (nearly).

I also worked on my assistant brief for a while this week, tweaking the perspective of the boy according to Lorena's drawover.

Before:

After.

On Tuesday there was a Schoolism talk, which I attended since I am interested in learning about 3D development and art. Specifically, I'm very interested in the gaming scene. I know there are a lot of job opportunities in that area within Scotland, so I'm very curious about it.

Speaking of games - I attended my first ever Game Jam!

The above video is what I produced for the jam, which was a short introductory sequence for the game. It went through many iterations due to difficulties I will mention below.

I thought it would be more tiring, but there was actually many DJCAD students attending, so our team was overcrowded (a good thing workload-wise). As a first experience, it provided everything I was looking for - a calm insight into what it's like. It was extremely valuable for me, but I do regret not managing to do more for the team. For a couple of reasons, my progress was stilted. 1) I was trying to learn a new software since I believed it would be useful, but ultimately had to give up due to the amount of time I was spending and results produced. 2) There was a member of our group not in our year who I don't think had really experienced much groupwork yet, and was very difficult to deal with for the other animators there and the game devs. This also led to me doing a lot of managing of the group - trying to wrangle a lot of highly ambitious ideas, make sure nobody was getting too frustrated with each other, and ensure everyone was doing something and knew what that was.

We didn't manage to complete the game, however, I definitely want to repeat this experience, and try to enter another game jam at some point for my portfolio. The devs were also so lovely and it was a very welcoming atmosphere.

[sams-animation]

21/01/2024

The previous week I have been working on my pitch idea for this coming Tuesday. I started working on it by just trying to flesh out the story. I pitched the idea at a pre-pitch we held individually as students without any images or moodboards to see whether or not the story itself was robust enough before I pitched it. Since then, I’ve been working on some concept art and beatboards which will help me sell the story.

I want to convey a cosy sense of romance, leaving room for a slight build of tension and a release at a pivotal moment in the character’s journey. I think a slightly humorous approach works here too though I’m not entirely sure why.

Though I wouldn’t consider myself good at beatboards or storyboards, I tried my best to get the idea down even just roughly so that things like timing could make sense logistically. I have to fit this story into three minutes, and a peer has already expressed concern about my ability to do so, so I’m being very careful to keep it simple.

After a lot of consideration, I decided to go for 2D animation and 2D background artist as my specialisms. Hopefully I’ll get to stick to these, but I decided on these specialisms because I really love learning about them both. An added bonus is that I believe these specialisms are probably good if I’m looking into games design, which is something I want to investigate individually for my portfolio.

#development blog #animation